
aass__JiILG_a£? 

Book 3-2S — _ 






COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE 



EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN: 



%, Cttlopira of Roman's SlorL 



BY 



VIRGINIA PENNY. 



4P^ 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY WALKER, WISE, & COMPANY, 

245 WASHINGTON STEEET. 

1863. 












Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by 

VIEGINIA PENNY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 



District of New York. 



4 X 



/ *v 



TO 

WORTHY AND INDUSTRIOUS WOMEN 

IN THE UNITED STATES, 
STEIYING TO EAKN A LIVELIHOOD, 

Sljfe §0ok 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 

THE AUTHOK, 



PEEFACE. 



It is very easy to obtain book after book on " The Sphere of 
Woman," " The Mission of Woman," and " The Influence of Woman." 
But to a practical mind it must be evident that good advice is not 
sufficient. That is very well, provided the reader is supplied with 
the comforts of life. But plans need to be devised, pursuits require 
to be opened, by which women can earn a respectable livelihood. It 
is the great want of the day. It is in order to meet that want that this 
work has been prepared. The few employments that have been open 
to women are more than full. To withdraw a number from the few 
markets of female labor already crowded to excess, by directing them 
to avenues where they are wanted, would thereby benefit both parties. 

At no time in our country's history have so many women been 
thrown upon their own exertions. A million of men are on the battle 
field, and thousands of women, formerly dependent on them, have 
lost or may lose their only support. Some of the mothers, wives, 
sisters, and daughters of soldiers, may take the vacancies created in 
business by their absence — others must seek new channels of labor. 

An exact estimate of woman as she has been, and now is, furnishes 
a problem difficult to solve. Biographies and histories merely furnish 
a clue to what she has been. Prejudice has exaggerated these por- 
traitures. Woman as she now is, save in fiction and society, is 
scarcely known. The future position of woman is a matter of conjec- 
ture only. No mathematical nicety can be brought to bear upon the 
subject, for it is one not capable of data. More particularly is it diffi- 
cult to define what her future condition in a business capacity will be. 
Man will have much to do with it, but woman more. I know of no 
work giving a true history of woman's condition in a business capa- 



/ 



VI PREFACE. 

city. Socially, morally, mentally, and religiously, she is written about ; 
but not as a working, every-day reality, in any other capacity than 
that pertaining to home life. It has been to me a matter of surprise 
that some one has not presented the subject in a practical way, that 
would serve as an index to the opening of new occupations, and pre- 
sent the feasibility of women engaging in many from which they are 
now debarred. It is strange there is no book on the subject, in any 
language, for it is a world-wide subject. Its roots are in the very basis 
of society — its ramifications as numerous as the nations of the earth — 
yes, as the individual members of the human family. The welfare of 
every man, woman, and child is involved in the subject. For who is 
entirely free from female influence — who is devoid of interest in the 
sex — who exists free from relationship, or any connection with 
woman ? There is no man that is not involved in what affects 
woman, and the reverse is also true. It should therefore be a subject 
of paramount interest to all. Particularly does the subject appeal to 
the heart of woman. If she does not need to make a practical use 
of information on the subject, she will find its possession no disad- 
vantage. It may assist her, from motives of friendship, or benevolent 
feelings, to advise and direct others. Is there any woman, not en- 
tirely devoid of all sensibility, but desires an amelioration in the con- 
dition of the working class of her sex — those who earn a mere pit- 
tance, scarce enough to keep body and soul together ? 

The work of single women has never been very clearly defined. 
Those that are without means are often without any to guide them ; 
and the limited avenues of employment open to women, and the fear 
of becoming a burden on others, have poisoned some of their best 
hours, and paralyzed some of their strongest powers. There is a 
large amount of female talent in the United States lying dormant for 
the want of cultivation, and there has been a large amount cultivated 
that is not brought into exercise for the want of definite plans and 
opportunities of making it available. It exists like an icicle, and re- 
quires the warmth of energy, thought, and independence to render it 
useful. It shrinks from forcing itself into notice, like the sensitive 
plant, and may live and die unseen and unknown. Widen, then, the 
theatre of action and enterprise to woman. Throw open productive 
fields of labor, and let her enter. 

Of those who speak so bitterly of women engaging in some pur- 
suits now conducted by men, we would inquire, "What would you 
have destitute single women and widows do, by which to earn their 
bread ? You surely would not have women steal, that cannot obtain 
employment. What, then, can they do ? Why may they not have 



PREFACE. Vll 

free access to callings that will insure them a support ? Those that 
oppose them, generally do so from selfish motives. Many men would 
banish women from the editor's and author's table, from the store, 
the manufactory, the workshop, the telegraph office, the printing 
case, and every other place, except the school room, sewing table, and 
kitchen. The false opinion that exists in regard to the occupations 
suitable for women must be changed ere women have free access to all 
those in which they may engage. Yet I would love to see thrown 
open to women the door of every trade and profession in which they 
are capable of working. 

"Women have not devoted their time and talents to mechanical 
arts, except to a very limited extent, and only within fifty years. How 
then could they be expected to equal men in proficiency, who have 
from the creation of the world been so employed, and who have had 
the advantage not only of their own exertions, but the experience of 
their fathers and forefathers to profit by? The superior mechanical 
talent of the United States is becoming known throughout the civil- 
ized world, and some of the work dictated by that talent is executed 
by women. 

Some persons complain that women would become more material 
— less spiritual — if engaged in manual labor. We think not, if it is 
of a kind suited to their nature. Contact with the world does not al- 
ways wear out the fineness and delicacy that we love in woman. She 
does not necessarily lose that softness and gentleness that render her 
so lovely. 

A few women may by nature have a fondness for masculine pur- 
suits ; but the number of men that have from training and circum- 
stances a partiality for feminine pursuits, is much greater. It has 
been estimated that there are 95,000 females earning a livelihood in 
!New York city and its vicinity, by their labor, aside from those en- 
gaged in domestic pursuits; and I am confident there are at least 
100,000 men in the same city engaged in pursuits well adapted to 
women. 

As women become more generally educated, their energies will be 
increased — their limits of thought expanded. They will seek employ- 
ments consistent with honor and delicacy. They will desire the ele- 
vation of their sex, and do what they can to bring it about, regard- 
less of the shafts of ridicule sent by selfish men and heartless women. 

" By elevating the standard and augmenting the compensation of 
woman's labor," a complete revolution would be wrought in the so- 
cial and political standing of woman. Let woman once surmount the 
difficulties that now oppose her, and take her stand with dignified 



V11I PREFACE. 

reserve, laboring and claiming what is her right as much as men — 
free labor and fair wages — and liberal men will applaud and ad- 
mire her. 

As a friend of my sex, I have made investigations, and obtained 
statistics that show the business position of woman at present in the 
United States. I present such employments as have been, are, or 
may be pursued by them, and give what information I can obtain of 
each one. I may have omitted a few, and there may be some that 
are not yet recognized as a distinct business. I have made the study 
a speciality for three years, and spent an almost incredible amount of 
labor and money in doing so. I have visited factories, workshops, 
offices, and stores, for the purpose of seeing women at their vocations. 
I have gone through wind and snow, cold and rain. If I could have 
had the time and opportunity, I would have endeavored to see, also, 
something of their home-life. 

Much of the verbal information I give is impartial, as it has been 
given by those with whom I talked in a casual way, they not know- 
ing I had any object in view ; and frequently it was done in a respect- 
ful, yet off-hand way, when making purchases. I have often bought 
articles merely for an excuse to talk with people, and gain informa- 
tion on their occupations. 

I desire to present to those interested a clear and succinct view 
of the condition of business in the United States, the openings 
for entering into business, the vacancies women may fill and the 
crowded marts they may avoid, the qualifications needed for a selected 
pursuit, and the pursuits to which they are best adapted ; also the 
probable result pecuniarily of each calling honorably pursued: in 
short, it is intended as a business manual for women. I wish to 
make it a practical work — useful, not ornamental. It is more a 
bringing together of facts, than a presentation of ideas — more a book 
of research than reflection. Yet the statements given are important, 
not merely as facts, but as being suggestive of things essential to or 
connected with occupations. The limits of each subject must neces- 
sarily be short, as I wish to form a volume to come within the reach 
of every one that would desire a copy. 

Any female who has in view the learning of any occupation men- 
tioned in this book, would do well to go and see the process before 
making arrangements to that effect. And she should exercise her 
own judgment in making a practical use of that information. Many 
pursuits are now followed by women for which it was once thought 
they were incapable. 

My book is not sectional in its feelings. It is intended to benefit 



PREFACE. IX 

women of the North, South, East, and West of this vast Republic. 
In the large cities of the North, most working women are acquainted 
with others engaged in different occupations, and so may learn of 
places to be filled in them. In the South, a smaller number of women 
have been dependent on their own exertions, owing to the existence 
of slave-labor, and the comparative smallness of immigration. 

I strongly advocate the plan of every female having a practical 
knowledge of some occupation by which to earn a livelihood. How 
do men fare that are raised without being fitted for any trade or 
profession, particularly those in the humbler walks of life? They 
become our most common and ill-paid laborers. So it is with 
woman's work. If a female is not taught some regular occupation 
by which to earn a living, what can she do, when friends die, and she 
is without means ? Even the labor that offers to men, situated as she 
is, is not at her disposal. 

No reproach should be cast upon any honest employment. The 
dignity and value of labor in the most menial occupation is superior 
to idleness or dependence upon others for the requirements of life. 
What destitute but industrious woman would not be glad to earn for 
herself a snug little cottage, to which she may resort in her old age, 
from the cares and conflicts of life ; to enjoy the independence of a 
competency, earned by remunerative and well-applied labor? 

I will not be responsible for all the opinions advanced by those 
who have furnished me with information. The reader will often 
have to form her own deductions from the statements made. My 
work may not accomplish, by a great deal, the end proposed, but I 
hope it may be the means of securing, by honest industry, a liveli- 
hood to many now dependent and desponding. If it does not in 
itself accomplish any visible good, it may be the means of bringing 
forward some better method by which the desired end may be 
effected. It may perhaps impart information by which the philan- 
thropic may best employ their time and means in advancing the wel- 
fare of others, by pointing out the wants of dependent women, and 
how best to meet those wants. It may open the way of usefulness 
to women of leisure and talents. If it saves any of my sex from an 
aimless and profitless life, I will feel that something has been done. 
In that way some may be kept from despair and sin. And it is cer- 
tainly better to prevent evil than to cure it. Some have means, and 
if a plan were presented to them, they would engage in its execution. 

Connected with this subject is a fervent desire on the part of the 
writer to see houses of protection and comfort provided in our cities 
for respectable and industrious women when out of employment. 



X PREFACE. 

Wealthy, benevolent people might build them, and appropriations be 
granted by the cities in which they are planted. Such a structure in 
each of our cities and towns would be a refuge to the weary, a home 
to the oppressed, a sanctuary to the stranger in a strange land. 

"When the place of gaining information is not mentioned in this 
work, it will be understood that New York city was the place. It 
will be remembered that most of the information was obtained from 
October, 1859, to February, 1861. 

I hope much anxiety of mind, and uncertainty in the selection of 
a pursuit, will be prevented by my book, and many precious hours 
thereby saved for active, cheerful employment. If there should seem 
to be a want of practicability in any of the subjects I have treated 
upon, I think, after some reflection, it will disappear. Some of the 
employments presented may not find encouragement and proper 
compensation until our country becomes older, and calls for more 
variety in labor. I hope I may not hold out any unreasonable ex- 
pectations of employment, or excite any hope that may not be real- 
ized. My ideas may appear vague and indefinite to some, but even 
such may perhaps pick out a few grains from the pile of chaff. But 
we must be doing, not saying — moving, not sitting — accomplishing 
something, not folding our hands in indolent ease. The active, rest- 
less spirit that pervades our people calls for action. It will not do 
to rest passive and let events take their own course. The progress 
of the age calls for earnest labor. 



mTBODTICTION. 



The great, urgent, universal wants of mankind, in all classes of 
society, are food, clothing, shelter, and fuel. After these come the 
comforts and luxuries pertaining to the condition of those in easy- 
circumstances. Above and beyond these animal wants, but of nearly 
equal importance, are those relating to the mind — written and printed 
matter, oral instructions, as lectures and sermons, and the handi- 
work of the fine arts. These, in addition to health, freedom, and 
friends, comprise the greatest blessings man enjoys. I would add 
that the means of transit are necessary to make him entirely inde- 
pendent. Nearly all honest occupations are founded on these wants ; 
but they have been divided and subdivided until their name is legion. 

The contents of this volume might be arranged in the same way 
that the articles exhibited in the Crystal Palace of London were, 
under the heads — Producer, Importer, Manufacturer, Designer, In- 
ventor, and Proprietor. But we think the arrangement pursued, 
though rather irregular, may be quite as convenient. So great is the 
variety of subjects treated, that it is difficult to condense the contents 
in a smaller compass. 

The general difference in character and habits of those engaged 
in various occupations — their comparative morality and intelligence, 
the effects of a decline in wages, the effects of trades-unions, are all, 
more or less, involved in this subject of employments ; also the opinions 
of the working classes on machinery and its results. Employments 
that have for their object the health, comfort, and protection of man- 
kind — those that produce the necessaries and the luxuries of life — 
those for amusement and capable of being dispensed with— are all 
treated of to some extent. 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

Numbers of women have been lost to society from the want of a 
systematic organization for their employment, and by a deficiency in 
the number of remunerative pursuits open to them. The destinies of 
thousands are daily perilled, mentally, morally, and physically, by the 
same cause. The disease has raised a great and turbulent cry ; but, 
strange to say, few means, and they limited and inefficient, have been 
used as a cure. Indeed, a remedy has scarcely been devised. To 
open new and suitable occupations to women, and secure for them 
fair wages, would, I believe, be an effectual mode of relief. But to 
bring about a favorable change, not only must more occupations be 
opened to women, but, as Mr. Walker says, u employments of an 
equally indispensable character with those of the other sex." Many 
persons would be surprised to find the large number of people em- 
ployed in such occupations as pertain only to civilized life — such as 
could be dispensed with in an emergency ; and the small number em- 
ployed in such occupations as really furnish us with the necessaries 
of life. In the first class, aside from those engaged in domestic duties 
and labors, the majority of women are employed. 

In the selection of a pursuit, it would be well to take into consider- 
ation what occupations are most likely to increase in this country. 
Those absolutely necessary for the preservation of life are permanent. 
Those essential to the health and comfort of mankind must be pur- 
sued by some. The steadiness of employment the year round should 
also be considered. Another item is the danger attending a trade, 
and the effects of the occupation on the health of the individual. A 
better compensation should be given to those prosecuting either a 
dangerous or unhealthy pursuit. There is at present more danger of 
women suffering from either an excess of work, or the entire want 
of it, than from any peculiarity pertaining to an occupation. A 
matter of some importance is the ability of an individual to furnish 
herself with the implements of a trade, goods for merchandizing, 
or the appurtenances of a profession, if she intends to conduct busi- 
ness on her own responsibility and at her own expense. If she has 
friends to advance her the money, she might perhaps make an arrange- 
ment to refund as she advances in business. 

It is a matter of doubt with us whether the labors of women are 
on an average less laborious than those of men. That they are gen- 
erally performed indoors, is not saying anything in their favor as 
regards health. If we include domestic employments, we cannot say 
they are neater on an average. They may be better adapted to the 
constitution of the female sex, but the question arises, Are those in 
which women now engage, except domestic duties, more congenial 



ESTTRODITCTICXN'. Xlll 

to their taste, more acceptable to their feelings, more likely to de- 
velop their mental powers, and rightly direct their moral nature, than 
many others in which they might engage ? 

We find that the class of workers, both men and women, having 
the most steady employments, are the most steady and reliable 
people. 

There are some employments in which it is well for a man and 
his wife to unite, as bankers, picture restorers, house painters, &c. 

There is probably as much diversity in the abilities of individual 
men to acquire a trade, as in those of women. "We doubt not but 
women, generally, are as capable of acquiring a knowledge of any 
vocation as men, if they spend as much time and application in doing 
so. Could not women learn those occupations quite as thoroughly 
that require of men an apprenticeship of three, five, or seven years, 
if they could give the same time ? We are confident the majority of 
women could, particularly those who have had equal advantages in 
the way of education and society with men engaged in the same 
pursuit. 

We think the time spent in acquiring a knowledge of different oc- 
cupations is not at all proportioned to the variety of work and the 
skill required for proficiency in each. For instance, an occupation 
that could be learned in six months, must have three years' labor 
given ; while an occupation that it requires twenty years to excel in, 
has the usual apprenticeship of three years. By the way, could not 
the most of those pursuits now requiring three years' time of serving 
be mastered in a shorter period ? 

Supply and demand must ever regulate, to a great extent, the 
wages of women as well as men. We think, in the different depart- 
ments of woman's labor, both physical and mental, there exists a 
want of harmony of labor done and the compensation ; also, between 
the time given and the occupation. For instance, a gilder in a book- 
bindery gets $6 a week, or $1 a day of ten hours, which is equal to 
ten cents an hour. A girl, at most mechanical employments, receives, 
for her sixty hours' labor, $3 a week, which is equal to five cents an 
hour. A cook, who requires as much preparation as either, for ninety 
hours' labor will receive her board and washing, say $2, and $2 a 
week as wages, $4, equal to four and a half cents an hour. Confec 
tioners' girls, in some of the best establishments in New York, 
spend seventeen, and some even eighteen hours, attending to their du- 
ties, and receive only $2, and board and washing, $4.50, equal to two 
and a half cents an hour. Some seamstresses sew fifteen hours a day, 
and earn but thirty cents, equal to two cents an hour, without board. 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

"Where there are discrepancies about the seasons for any particu- 
lar kind of work, as given by different parties, it will usually be found 
to arise from some of the number being engaged in the wholesale 
business, selling to people from the South and West ; others selling 
to city traders, or retail merchants selling to city customers. 

"When there is a repetition of statements on the same subject, it 
will be observed that it arises from the information being given by 
different individuals. 

I have used the words girl and woman indiscriminately, except 
when mention is made of the age of the girls. 

I would take this opportunity of returning my thanks to all who 
have been so kind as to furnish me with any information, or directed 
me how to obtain it. 

Some errors will no doubt be observed by persons in their special 
branches of labor. By writing to the author, attention will hereafter 
be paid to the correction of such errors. 



NATUBE OF THE CONTENTS. 



This work contains five hundred and thirty-three articles, 
more than five hundred of which are descriptions of the occupa- 
tions in which women are, or may be engaged — the effect of 
each on the health — the rate of wages paid for those carried on 
in the United States — a comparison in the prices of male and 
female labor of the same kind — the length of time required to 
learn the business fully, and the time required to learn the part 
done by women — whether women are paid while learning — the 
qualifications needed — the prospect of future employment in each 
branch — the seasons best for work, and if in any season the 
women are thrown entirely out of work — the usual number of 
hours employed, and, if the working time exceeds ten hours, 
whether it could be shortened without serious loss of profit — 
and the comparative superiority or inferiority of women to men 
in each branch. Also, openings in the Southern States for 
certain branches of business — the prices of board for work- 
women, and the remarks of employers — with a list of the occupa- 
tions suitable for the afflicted. In addition are articles on un- 
usual employments in the United States, England, France, 
and other countries — minor employments in the United States, 
England, and France. Also, a notice of the occupations in which 
no women are engaged in any country — those in which none are 
engaged in this country — those in which very few are engaged. 



HEADS OF SUBJECTS. 



Pkofessional Women. Artists. Those in Mercantile Pur- 
suits. Employments pertaining to Grain, Birds, Flowers, Fruits, 
and Vegetables. Eaisers, Makers, Preparers, and Disposers of 
Articles of Food. Textile Manufacturers— Cotton, Linen, Wool- 
len, Silk, Lace. Metal Manufacturers— Iron, Brass, Steel, Cop- 
per, Tin, Britannia, Silver, Silver Plating, Bronze, Gold. Mis- 
cellaneous Workers on Indian Goods, Inkstands, Lithoconia, 
Marble, Mineral Door-Knobs, Paper Cutting, Papier Mache, 
Pipes, Porcelain, Pottery, Stucco Work, Terra Cotta, and Trans- 
ferring on Wood. Glass Manufacturers. China Decorators. 
Leather Manufacturers. Whalebone Workers. Brush Manu- 
facturers. Ivory Cutters. Pearl Workers. Tortoise-Shell 
Workers. Gum-Elastic Manufacturers. Gutta-Percha Manu- 
facturers. Hair Workers. Willow Ware. Wood Work. 
Agents. Manufacturers, and Colorers of Ladies' Apparel. Fit- 
ters, Cutters, and Sewers of Ladies' and Children's Wear. Up- 
holsterers. Manufacturers of Books, Ink, Paper, and Pencils. 
Chemicals. Those who serve as a Communicating Medium be- 
tween Employers and others. Those that contribute to the 
Comfort or Amusement of others. Mistresses and Domestics. 
Miscellaneous Occupations. Employments for the -Afflicted. 
Unusual Employments. Minor Employments. Occupations in 
which no Women are engaged, &c. Openings in the South for 
certain branches of business. Prices of Board for Workwomen, 
and Remarks of Employers. Number of Work Hours. Ex- 
tracts from the Census Report of 1860. Industrial Statistics of 
Paris. 



CONTENTS. 





Professional Women 






% 


PAGE 






PAGE 


41. 


Architects, 


. 51 


1. 


Amanuenses, . 


1 


42. 


Cameo Cutters, . 


52 


2 


Astronomers, 


1 


43. 


Copper-plate Engravers, 


. 53 


3. 


Authors, 


2 


44. 


Daguerreans, 


53 


4. 


Bankers and Clerks, . 


7 


45. 


Design, Schools of, . 


. 55 


5. 


Bible Readers, 


5 


46. 


Designers (Miscellaneous), 59 


6. 


Brokers, 


8 


47. 


Calico Prints, 


. 60 


7. 


Colonizationists, 


9 


48. 


WaU Paper, . 


61 


8. 


Colporteurs, 


9 


49. 


Draughtswomen, 


61 


9. 


Copyists, 


. 10 


50. 


Employes in the United 


10. 


Deaconesses, 


11 




States Mint, 


. 61 


11. 


Dentists, 


. 14 


51. 


Engravers and Chasers of 


12. 


Editresses, . 


14 




Gold and Silver, 


. 62 


13. 


Government Clerks, 


. 16 


52. 


Equestrians and Gymnasts 


, 64 


14. 


Lawyers, 


17 


53. 


Etchers and Stamp Cutters 


, 65 


15. 


Lecturers, 


. 18 


54. 


Herbarium Makers, 


. 65 


16. 


Librarians, . 


19 


55. 


Lapidaries, 


66 


17. 


Magazine Contributors, 


. 21 


56. 


Landscape Gardeners, 


. 67 


18. 


Missionaries, 


22 


57. 


Lithographers, . . 


68 


19. 


Medical Missionaries, 


. 23 


58. 


Map Makers, 


. 71 


20. 


Physicians, . 


24 


59. 


Medallists, . 


73 


21. 


Preachers, 


, 30 


60. 


Modellers, 


. 73 


22. 


Proof Readers, 


30 


61. 


Modellers of Wax Figure 


3, 74 


23. 


Publishers, 


31 


62. 


Mineral Labellers, . 


. 75 


24. 


Readers to the Working 




63. 


Musicians, , . , 


75 




Classes, 


32 


64. 


Music Engravers, 


. 77 


25. 


Reporters, . 


33 


65. 


Opera Performers, 


77 


26. 


Reviewers, 


34 


66. 


Painters, 


79 


27. 


Teachers, 


36 


67. 


Animals, 


81 


28. 


Bookkeeping, . 


39 


68. 


Banners, 


81 


29. 


Calisthenics and Dan 




69. 


Crayon and Pastel, 


81 




cing, . 


41 


70. 


Flowers and Fruit, 


82 


30. 


Drawing and Paint 




71. 


Fresco, 


82 




ing, . 


41 


72. 


Historical, 


82 


31. 


Fancy Work, 


42 


73. 


Landscape, . 


82 


32. 


Horsemanship, 


42 


74. 


Marine, . 


83 


33. 


Infant Schools, 


43 


75. 


Miniature, . 


83 


34. 


Languages, 


44 


76. 


Panorama, 


84 


35. 


Music, 


44 


77. 


Portrait, 


84 


36. 


Navigation, 


45 


78. 


Water Colors, 


85 


37. 


Swimming, . 


45 


79. 


Painters of Dial Plates, 


85 


38. 


Translators, . 


45 


80. 


Picture Restorers, 


85 








81. 


Piano Tuners, 


86 




Artists. 




82. 


Plaster Statuary, 


87 






83. 


Painters of Plates for 




39. 


Actresses, . 


47 




Books, 


88 


40. 


Aquaria Makers, 


50 


84. 


Photographers, . . 


90 



XV111 



CONTENTS. 



85. Preparers of Scientific 

Plates, . . 94 

86. Seal Engravers, . , 94 

87. Sculptors, ... 94 

88. Steel and other Engravers, 96 

89. Bank Note, . . 97 

90. Card, ' . . 9S 

91. Door Plate, . . 98 

92. Map, . . 98 

93. Pictorial and Her- 

aldry, . . 99 

94. Telegraph Operators, . 100 

95. Vocalists, . . .102 

96. Wax Work, 4 . 102 

97. Wood Engravers, . . 103 



Mercantile Pursuits, 

98. Merchants, . . . 104 

99. Bookkeepers, . . .106 

100. Book Merchants, . 108 

101. China Merchants, . . 109 

102. Clothiers, ... 110 

103. Curiosity Dealers, . .115 

104. Druggists and Clerks, . 115 

105. Keepers of Fancy Stores, . 119 

106. Gentlemen's Furnishing 

Stores, . . .119 

107. Furniture Sellers, . 120 

108. Grocers, . . .121 

109. Junk Dealers, . . 122 

110. Music Sellers, . . 122 

111. Sellers of Artists' Materials, 123 

112. Seeds, Eoots, and 

Herhs, . . 124 

113. Small Wares, . 124 

114. Tobacco, Snuff, and 

Cigars, . .125 

115. Saleswomen, . . 125 

116. Street Sellers, . . .131 

117. Toy Merchants, . . 134 

118. Wall Paper, . . .134 

119. Worn Clothes, . . 134 
1 120. Variety Shops, . . 136 



Employments pertaining to 
Grain, Birds, Flowers, Fruits, 
and Vegetables. 

121. Agriculturists, . t 136 

122. Bee Dealers, . . 137 

123. Bird Importers and Raisers, 137 



124. Bird and Animal Preserv- 

ers, ... 138 

125. Florists, . . . .140 

126. Flower Girls, . . 142 

127. Fruit Growers, . . 142 

128. Fruit Venders, . . 143 

129. Gardeners, . . .144 

130. Makers of Cordial, &c., 144 

131. Root, Bark, and Seed Sell- 

ers, . . . . 145 

132. Seed Enveiopers and Herb 

Packers, . . .145 

133. Sellers of Pets, . . 147 

134. Wine Manufacturers and 

Grape Growers, . 147 



Raisers, Makers, Preparers, and 
Disposers of Articles of Food. 



135. Bakers (Bread), 

136. Brewers, 

137. Candy Manufacturers, 

138. Cheese Makers, . 

139. Coffee and Chocolate Pack- 

ers, . 

140. Cracker Bakers, . • 

141. Fancy Confectionery, 

142. Fish women, 

143. Macaroni, 

144. Maple Sugar, 

145. Market Women, 

146. Meat Sellers, 

147. Milk Sellers and Dairy 

Women, 

148. Mince Meat, Apple But 

ter, &c, 

149. Mustard Packers, 

150. Oyster Sellers, . 

151. Pie Bakers, 

152. Picklers of Oysters, 

153. Poulterers, 

154. Restaurant Keepers, 

155. Sealed Provisions, 

156. Sugar Boilers, 

157. Tea Packers, . 

158. Vermicelli, . 

159. Vinegar, 

160. Yeast 



Textile Manufactures 
161. Cotton Manufacture, 



148 
150 
150 
152 

153 
154 
154 

158 
159 
159 
159 
161 

162 

163 
164 
164 
164 
166 
166 
167 
168 
170 
170 
171 
171 
172 



172 







CONTENTS 




XIX 






PAGE 






PAGE 


162. 


Batting and Wadding, . 


175 


205. 


Rivets, . • , 


217 


163. 


Calicoes, 


. 175 


206. 


Screws, . 


. 217 


164. 


Canton Flannel, . 


176 


207. 


Skates, . . , 


218 


165. 


Carpet Chains, 


. 176 


208. 


Shovels, . 


. 218 


166. 


Cord, .... 


177 


209. 


Wire Workers, 


218 


167. 


Dyers, . 


. 177 








168. 


Factory Operatives, 


180 




Brass Manufacture, 


. 219 


169. 


Gingham, 


. 183 


210. 


Candlesticks, 


219 


170. 


Hose, 


184 


211. 


Hooks and Eyes, 


. 220 


171. 


Men's Wear, . 


. 186 


212. 


Lamps, . * . 


221 


172. 


Print Works, 


186 


213. 


Pins, 


. 221 


173. 


Spinners, 


. 189 


214. 


Rings, 


223 


174. 


Spool Cotton, 


189 


215. 


Scales, 


. 223 


175. 


Tape, 


. 190 


216. 


Stair Rods, 


224 


176. 


Weavers, 


190 














217. 


Steel Manufacture, 


. 224 


177. 


Linen Manufacture, 


. 191 


218. 


Buckles, 


224 


178. 


Thread, 


193 


219. 


Edge Tools, . 


. 225 








220. 


Electrical Machines, 


226 


179. 


Woollen Manufacture 


, 194 


221. 


Fire Arms, 


. 226 


180. 


Blankets, 


. 195 


222. 


Knives and Forks, 


226 


181. 


Carpets, 


195 


223. 


Needles, . 


. 227 


182. 


Carpet Bags, . 


. 196 


224. 


Pens, . 


228 


183. 


Cassimeres, . 


197 


225. 


Philosophical Apparatu 


s, . 229 


184. 


Cloths, . 


. 198 


226. 


Saws, 


230 


185. 


Coverlets, 


201 


227. 


Scissors, . 


. 230 


186. 


Dry-Goods Refinishers, 


. 201 


228. 


Spectacles, . 


230 


187. 


Flannels, 


201 


229. 


Surgical Instruments^ 


. 232 


188. 


Gloves, . 


. 203 


230. 


Telescopes, , 


232 




Woollen, 


205 


231. 


Thermometers, 


. 232 


189. 


Linseys, . 


. 205 








190. 


Shawls, 


207 


232. 


Copper Manufacture, 


232 


191. 


Shoddy, . 


. 207 








192. 


Yarn, .... 


207 


233. 


Tin Manufacture, . 


. 233 








234. 


Lanterns, 


233 


193. 


Silk Manufacture, 


. 208 








194. 


Ribbons, 


209 


235. 


Britannia Ware, . 


. 234 


195. 


Sewing Silk, . 


. 210 














236. 


Silver Manufacture, 


. 234 


196. 


Lace Manufacture, . 


211 


237. 


Burnishers, 


234 


197. 


" Menders, 


. 212 


238. 


Thimbles, 


. 236 


198. 


Hair Cloth Manufa 
ture, 


c- 
. 213 


239. 


Silver Plating, 


237 








240. 


Bronze Manufacture, 


. 237 




Metal Manufactures 


. 


241. 


Gold Manufacture, 


237 








242. 


Assayers, 


. 238 


199. 


Iron Manufacture, . 


214 


243. 


Enamellers, 


238 


200. 


Files, 


. 215 


244. 


Gold and Silver Leaf, 


. 239 


201. 


Guns, .... 


215 


245. 


Jewellers' Findings, 


240 


202. 


Hinges, . 


. 215 


246. 


Pencils, 


. 241 


203. 


Locks, 


216 


247. 


Pens, . 


241 


204. 


Nails, 


. 217 


248. 


Watches, 


. 242 



XX 




CONTENTS, 










PAGE 






PAGE 


249. 


Watch-Case Polishers, . 


244 


288. 


Ivory Cutters and 




250. 


Watch Chains, 


. 246 




Workers. 


269 


251. 


Watch Jewels, 


248 














289. 


Combs, .... 


271 








290. 


Piano Keys, 


271 




Miscellaneous Works. 248 


291. 


Rulers (Paper), . # 


272 


252. 


Indian Goods, 


. 248 








253. 


Inkstands, . 


248 


292. 


Pearl Workers. 


273 


254. 


Lithoconia,' 


. 249 








255. 


Marble Workers, , 


249 








256. 


Mineral Door-Knobs, 


. 250 


293. 


Tortoise-Shell Workers. 


273 


257. 


Paper Cutters, 


250 








258. 


Papier-Mache Finishers 


, . 250 








259. 


Pipes, 


251 


294. 


Gum-Elastic Manu- 




260. 


Porcelain, 


. 251 




facture. 


274 


261. 


Pottery, 


252 








262. 


Stucco Work, . . 


. 253 


295. 


Men's Clothing, 


276 


263. 


Terra Cotta, 


253 


296, 


Shoes, . . 


276 


264. 


Transferrers on Wood, 


. 253 


297. 


Toys, .... 


276 



265. Glass Manufacture. 253 



266. Blowers, 

267. Beads, . 

268. Cutters, 

269. Embossers, 

270. Enamellers, 

271. Engravers, 

272. Painters, 

273. Stainers, 

274. Watch Crystals, 



275. China Decorators and 
Burnishers. 



276. 



Leather. 



277. Currying, 

278. Harnesses, 

2 79. Jewel and Instrument 

280. Morocco Sewers, . 

281. Pocket Books, 

282. Saddle Seats, 

283. Tanning, 

284. Trunks, 

285. Whips, . 



255 

255 
256 
256 
256 
257 
257 
258 
259 



260 

261 

262 
262 
263 
263 
264 
265 
265 
266 
266 



286. Whalebone Workers. 267 

287. Brush Manufacturers. 268 



298. Gutta Percha Manu- 
facture. 277 



299. 


Hair Workers. 


277 


299. 


Artists, . 


. 277 


300. 


Dressers, . , 


278 


301, 


Dyers, . . . 


. 280 


302. 


Growers, . . 


281 


303. 


Manufacturers, 


. 281 


304. 


Merchants, . 


281 


305. 


Willow Ware. 
Wood Work. 


282 


306. 


Carvers, 


. 284 


307. 


Kindling Wood, . 


285 


308. 


Pattern Makers, 


. 286 


309. 


Rattan Splitters, . 


286 


310. 


Cigar Boxes, . 


. 286 


311. 


Turners, 


287 



Agents. 

312. Express and other Convey- 

ances, . . . 287 

313. General, ... 288 



CONTENTS. 



XXI 



314. Literary, Book, and News- 

paper, . . . 289 

315. Mercantile, . . 201 

316. Pens, . 291 

317. Sewing Machines, . 291 

318. School, .... 292 

319. Telegraph Instruments, 292 

320. Washing Machines, . . 292 

Manufacturers and Colorers of 
Ladies' Apparel. 

321. Artificial Flowers, . . 292 

322. Belts, .... 295 

323. Bonnet Ruches, . . 295 

324. Dress Trimmings, . 296 

325. Embroidery, . . .298 

326. Feathers, . . •". 300 

327. Hoop Skirts, . . .301 

328. Muslin Sets, . . 804 

329. Parasols and Umbrellas, . 305 

330. Sempstresses, . . 308 

331. Sewing Machine Operatives, 310 



Fur Workers. 



332. Dyers, 

333. Sewers, 



312 
312 



Fitters, Cutters, and Sewers of 
Ladies' and Children's Wear. 



334. 


Bonnets, 


314 


335. 


Bonnet Frames, . 


319 


336. 


Bonnet Wire, . 


320 


337. 


Children's Clothes, 


321 


338, 


Cloaks and Mantillas, 


321 


339. 


Costumes, . 


323 


340. 


Dresses, .... 


324 


341. 


Dress Caps and Head- 






dresses, . . . 


326 


342. 


Fans, .... 


328 


343. 


Ladies' Under Wear, 


329 


344. 


Over Gaiters, 


330 


345. 


Patterns of Ladies' and 






Children's Clothes, 


330 


346. 


Shoes, 


331 


347. 


Stays, . 


334 



Straw Workers. 

348. Bleachers and Pressers, . 335 



349. Braiders, 

350. Sewers, . 



PAGE 

336 
337 



Renovators. 

351. Gentlemen's Wear, . 

352. Ladies' Wear, 

Gentlemen's Clothing. 

353. Army and Navy Uniform, 

354. Buttons, . . . 

355. Canes, . 

356. Caps, . 

357. Coats, . 

358. Cravats, 

359. Hats (Hat Braiders, 

360. Oil Clothing, 

361. Pantaloons, 

362. Regalias, . 

363. Shirts, . 

364. Suspenders, 

365. Tailoresses, 

366. Vests, 



367. 



Upholsterers, 



368. Beds, 

369. Carpets, 

370. Curled Hair Pullers, 

371. Curtain Trimmings, 

372. Furniture Goods, 

373. Mattresses, . 

374. Venetian Blinds, 

375. Window Shades, . 



349), 



339 
340 



340 
340 
342 
342 
345 
345 
345 
350 
350 
350 
350 
354 
355 
356 

357 

358 
358 
359 
359 
360 
360 
361 
361 



Manufacturers of Books, Ink, 
Paper, and Pencils, 

376. Book Folders, . . 363 

377. Book Sewers, . . 365 

378. Card Makers, . . 367 

379. Card Stencillers, . . 369 

380. Cover and Edge Gilders, 370 

381. Electrotypers, . .,370 

382. Envelope Makers, . 370 

383. Folders and Directors of 

Newspapers, . . 372 

384. Ink, ... . 373 

385. Label Cutters, . . 373 

386. Lead Pencils, . . 374 

387. Operatives in Paper Facto- 

ries, . . . 374 



XX11 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

388. Paper Bag Makers, . 376 

389. Box Makers, . 376 

390. Marblers, . . 379 

391. Rulers, . . 379 

392. Press Feeders, . . 380 

393. Printers, ... 380 

394. Sealing- Wax Makers, . 385 

395. Stereotypers, . . 385 

396. Type Rubbers and Setters, 386 

397. Wall-Paper Gilders, . 387 



398. Chemicals. 389 

399. Baking Powder, . . 390 

400. Bar Soap, . . .390 

401. Blacking, ... 390 

402. Candles, . . .391 

403. Chalk, ... 392 

404. Emery Paper, . . 392 

405. Fancy Soap, . . 392 

406. Fire Works, . . .392 

407. Flavoring Extracts, . 393 

408. Glue, .... 394 

409. Gunpowder, . . 394 

410. Oils, .... 394 

411. Paints, ... 394 

412. Patent Medicines, . . 395 

413. Pearlasli, ... 395 

414. Perfumery, . . . 395 

415. Quinine, ... 397 

416. Salt, .... 397 

417. Soda, ... 399 

418. Starch, .... 399 

419. White Lead, . . 400 

420. Whiting, . . .400 



Communicating Mediums be- 
tween Employers and Others, 

421. Assistants in Benevolent 

Institutions, . 400 

422. Commissioners of Deeds, . 402 

423. ^Housekeepers, . . 402 

424. Keepers of Intelligence Of- 

fices, . . .403 

425. Lighthouse Keepers, . 405 

426. Pawnbrokers, . . 406^ 

427. Postmistresses, . . 407 

428. Sewing-Machine Instructors, 408 

429. Shepherdesses, . . 409 

430. Toll Collectors, . 409 



Contributors to the Comfort or 
Amusement of Others. 

PAGE 

431. Bathhouse Attendants, . 409 

432. Brace and Truss Makers, 410 

433. Chiropodists, . .411 

434. Cuppers and Leechers, 413 

435. Fishing-Tackle Preparers, 413 

436. Fortune Tellers, . 415 

437. Guides and Door Attend- 

ants, . . . 415 

438. Lodging and Boarding 

House Keepers, . 415 

439. Makers of Artificial Eyes, 416 

440. Limbs, 418 

441. Teeth, 418 

442. Nurses for the Sick, . 419 

443. Steamboat and Railroad 

Newsvenders, . .421 

444. Street Musicians, . 421 

445. Tavern Keepers, . . 422 

446. Travelling Companions, 423 



Mistresses and Domestics. 

447. Mistresses, . . . 423 

448. Domestics, . . . 424 

449. Chambermaids, . . 426 

450. Cooks, ... 428 

451. Dining-Room Waiters, 429 

452. Ladies' Maids, . . 430 

453. Nurses for Children, . 430 

454. Saloon Attendants, . 431 

455. Washers, Ironers, and 

Manglers, . . .431 



Miscellaneous Occupations, and 
Workers therein. 

456. Backgammon-Board Fin- 

ishers, . . 433 

457. Balloon Makers, . . 433 

458. Billiard-Table Finishers, 434 

459. Bill Posters, . . 434 

460. Block Cutters, . . 434 

461. Boatwomen, . . 435 

462. Bone Collectors, . . 435 

463. Bottlers and Labellers, 435 

465. Broom Makers, . . 436 

464. Bronzers, . . . 436 

466. Canvas and Cotton Bag 

Makers, . . .437 

467. Car and Carriage Painters, 438 



CONTENTS. 



XX111 



468. 
469. 
470. 
471. 
472. 
473. 
474. 
475. 
476. 
477. 
478. 

479. 
480. 
481. 
482. 
483. 
484. 
485. 
486. 
487. 
488. 
489. 
490. 
491. 
492. 
493. 
494. 
495. 



496. 
497. 
498. 
499. 
500. 
501. 
502. 
503. 
504. 
505. 
506. 
507. 
508. 
509. 
510. 
511. 
512. 
513. 
514. 



PAGE 

Carriage Trimmers, . 439 

Chair Seaters, . . 440 
China Menders, . , 441 
Cigar Makers, . . 442 
Cigar-End Finders, . 444 

Cinder Gatherers, . 444 

Clear Starchers, . . 444 

Clock Makers, . . 444 
Clothes-Pin Makers, . 445 

Clothes Repairers, . 445 
Cork Assorters and Sole 

Stitchers, . . 445 

Daguerreotype Apparatus, 446 
Feather Dressers, . 447 

Flag Makers, . . . 447 
Furniture Painters, . 448 
Gilders of Mirror Frames, 449 
Glohe Makers, . .450 

Hobby-Horse Finishers, - 450 
Horse Coverings, . .451 
House Painters, . . 452 
Japanners, . . . 452 
Knitters, . . . 454 
Lace Bleachers, . .457 
Lacquerers . . . 458 
Life Preservers, . .458 
Lucifer Matches, . . 458 
Mat Makers, . . .460 
Manufacturers of Musical 

Instruments, . . 460 
Melodeons and Organs, 461 
Pianos, . . . 462 

Seraphines, . . 463 
Musical-String Makers, . 463 
Netters, . . . 464 
Oakum Pickers, . . 464 
Paper Hangers, . . 465 
Polishers, . . . 465 
Pin Finders, . . 465 

Rag Cutters, . . .465 
Rag Gatherers, . . 466 
Rope and Twine Makers, . 468 
Sail and Awning Makers, 470 
Shoe-Peg Makers, . .470 
Shroud Makers, . . 470 
Sign Painters, . .471 

Snuff Packers, . . 47? 
Stencil Makers, . .473 
Street Sweepers, . 473 

Tip Gilders, . . .473 
Tobacco Strippers, . 474 
Toy Makers, . . .475 



515. Varnishers and Varnish 

Makers, . . . 476 

516. Water Carriers, . . 476 



Employments for the AfHicted. 



517. Blind Women, , 

518. Deaf Mutes, 

519. The Lame, 



Unusual Employments. 



520. United States, 

521. England, . 

522. France, . 

523. Other Countries, 



M.mQic Employments. 

524. United States, 

525. England, 

526. France, 



477 
477 
477 



477 
478 
481 

482 



484 
484 

485 



527. Occupations in which no 
Women are Engaged. 486 

528. None in the United States, 486 

529. Very few, ... 486 

530. Openings in the South 

for certain "branches 

of business, . . 487 

537. Price of Board for 
Workwomen, and Re- 
marks of Employ- 
ers, .... 488 

532. Number of Work Hours, 489 

532. Extracts from Census 
Report of i860, in 
advance of publication, 490 



Industrial Statistics of Paris, 
France, in 1848, . . 492 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



PBOFESSIONAL, LITERAKY, AND SCIENTIFIC 
PURSUITS, 

1. Amanuenses, Amanuenses are employed to write from 
dictation, generally by authors. Preseott, who was nearly blind 
for several years, employed one or more. Editors whose papers 
have an extensive circulation, sometimes require the services of 
an amanuensis. Female secretaries, or writers out of books, were 
not unusual in Some. li Origen," says Eusebius, " had not only 
young men, but young women to transcribe his works, which they 
did with peculiar neatness." Some persons in London (whose 
employment, perhaps, scarcely brings them under this title, yet 
we know not where else to place them) make it a business to 
write letters for beggars, for which they are paid a small sum by 
each applicant. Amanuenses are usually employed by the week, 
month, or year. Some education is of course necessary, and will 
doubtless influence their pay. Experience increases their value 
still more ; and those who have to exercise their brains, are of 
course best paid. I have been told by competent authority, that 
amanuenses are usually paid according to agreement ; that 
authors of distinction can afford to pay a good price, and that 
the most common salary is $600. 

2. Astronomers. Maria Cunitz is mentioned as an as- 
tronomer of the seventeenth century in Germany. Miss Caroline 
Herschel discovered two moons and several comets. Miss Maria 
Mitchell, of Nantucket, Mass., discovered a new planet, and re- 
ceived, in consequence, a medal from the King of Denmark. She 
formerly observed for the Coast Survey, but was not officially 
recognized. She computes for the Nautical Almanac. She 



2 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

writes : " I know of no lady astronomers who are practical ob- 
servers. Very good works have been written on the subject by 
women. An observing room is never warmed by a fire ; and as 
a small part, at least, of the roof must be opened to the air, the 
exposure is according to the weather, as the observations must be 
made in clear evenings. I do not consider the danger to the 
health great. I know of no way in which astronomical observa- 
tions can be made to pay women. They could, without doubt, 
make better observers than men, with the same amount of prac- 
tice. The same delicacy of touch and of perception that makes 
them good at the needle, would make them efficient in the delicate 
manipulations of the micrometer. But I know of no man well 
paid as an observer only. There are always volunteer candidates 
in this department of an observatory. Women can make as good 
computations as men, and do their work more neatly; but here, 
also, the field is occupied by men, although, I think, never as 
volunteers without pay. I have no doubt many of the computa- 
tions professedly made by men, are really the work of women 
employed as assistants. This has always been the case in the 
long and tedious computations made for astronomical objects in 
the early efforts of the science. My own observatory is wholly a 
private affair, and supported entirely by my own means, which 
are my daily earnings as computer to the Nautical Almanac. 
I employ no assistant." I am happy to say Miss Mitchell re- 
ceives the same salary for the observations and reckonings of the 
Nautical Almanac that would be given to a man. In 1856, at the 
Smithsonian Institute, a paper was read by Professor Foote, on 
the heat of the sun's rays ; after which a paper by Mrs. Foote 
was read by Professor Henry, giving an account of experiments 
made by herself on the same subject. Miss Harriet Bouvier 
(now Mrs. Peterson) has written a very good work on astronomy 
for schools. Mrs. Somerville, a distinguished astronomer of 
England, has added much information to the science by her dis- 
coveries. " Miss Anne Sheepshanks, sister to the late astrono- 
mer, has been elected a fellow of the Astronomical Society." 

3. Authors. Many superior works of fiction have been 
written by ladies of America, some of which have been translated 
into the languages of Europe and introduced into those countries. 
Many of our fair countrywomen have distinguished themselves 
by their poetical effusions, and quite a number have published 
their poems in book form. Mrs. Everett Green, author of the 
" Lives of the Princesses of England," is now employed by the 
English Government upon state papers. Research into historical 
data, and the nice, careful arrangement of details, are well fitted 
to the patience of woman. Several years ago, Queen Victoria 



AUTHORS. 3 

granted to Mrs. Gore and Mrs. Jamieson each $1,000 a year as 
pensions. These are not by any means the only instances of her 
liberality to literary women. During the year ending January, 
I860, she granted pensions to thirteen ladies, either for literary 
merit of their own or that of some relative. The French Acad- 
emy awarded to Madame Louisa Collet, in 1851, the prize of 
81,000 for poetry; also one to Mile. Ernestine Druet, a governess 
in a school at Paris. Mile. Royer received the prize, a short 
time ago, from the University of Lausanne, for a philosophical 
essay. The labor of authors is not rewarded as well as other 
kinds of intellectual labor of the same extent : for instance, a 
physician or lawyer, with the same abilities, amount of learning, 
and application, would derive a greater reward pecuniarily. In the 
United States an author can retain the profits of his work a certain 
number of years, being at liberty to make any arrangement with 
his publisher he sees proper. In France and Russia he possesses 
the profits arising from the sale of his work during his life, and 
his heirs receive them during twenty years. The following is an 
extract from H. C. Carey's article on the Rewards of Author- 
ship : " Mr. Irving stands, I imagine, at the head of living 
authors for the amount received for his books. The sums paid 
to the renowned Peter Parley must have been enormously great; 
but what has been their extent, I have no means of ascertaining. 
Mr. Mitchell, the geographer, has realized a handsome fortune 
from his school books. Professor Davies is understood to have 
received more than $50,000 from the series published by him. 
The Abbotts, Emerson, and numerous other authors engaged in 
the preparation of books for young persons and schools, are 
largely paid. Professor Anthon, we are informed, has received 
more than $60,000 for his series of classics. The French series 
of Mr. Bolmar has yielded him upward of &20,0C0. The school 
geography of Mr. Morse is stated to have yielded more than 
$20,000 to its author. A single medical book, of one octavo 
volume, is understood to have produced its authors $60,000, and 
a series of medical books has given its author probably $30,000. 
Mr. Downing's receipts from his books must have been very large. 
The two works of Miss Warner must have already yielded her 
from $12,000 to $15,000, and perhaps as much more. Mr. 
Headley is stated to have received about $40,000 ; and the few 
books of Ik Marvel have yielded him about $20,000. A single 
one, ' The Reveries of a Bachelor,' produced 84,000 in the 
first six months. Mrs. Stowe has been very largely paid. Miss 
Leslie's cookery and recipe books have paid her $12,000. 
Dr. Barnes is stated to have received more than $30,000 for 
the copyright of his religious works. Fanny Fern has probably 



4 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

received not less than $8,000 for the duodecimo volume published 
but six months since. Mr. Prescott was stated, several years 
since, to have received $90,000 from his books, and I have never 
seen it contradicted. According to the rate of compensation 
generally understood to be received by Mr. Bancroft, the present 
sale of each volume yields him more than $15,000, and he has 
the long period of forty-two years for future sale. Judge Story 
fdied, as has been stated, in the annual receipt of more than 
$8,000, and the amount has not, as it is understood, diminished. 
Mr. Webster's works in three years can scarcely have paid less 
than $25,000. Kent's ' Commentaries ' are understood to have 
yielded to their author and his heirs more than $120,000 ; and if 
we add to this, for the remainder of the period, only one half of 
this sum, we shall obtain $180,000, or $45,000 as the compensa- 
tion for a single octavo volume — a reward for literary labor un- 
exampled in history." It is necessary that the reader, in con- 
sidering the figures given, remember that the reputation of an 
author has much to do with the price paid by a publisher for man- 
uscripts. The number of women authors is much greater than one 
unacquainted with the statistics in regard to the subject would 
suppose. " In 1847 Count Leopold Feni died at Padua, leaving 
a library entirely composed of works written by women in various 
languages, the number of volumes amounting to nearly thirty- two 
thousand. Whether the English and American lady writers 
were included in his list we do not know, ' but we wish some 
woman of taste and fortune, in our country, would make a simi- 
lar collection." It is said that two thirds of the writers in 
Chambers' Edinburgh Journal are women. Some of the writers 
of our best periodicals are women. The success of women in 
works of fiction is unquestioned. This class of books requires 
less time, less study, and less money, and rewards the authors pe- 
cuniarily better than any other kind of work, considering, of 
course, the comparatively . small amount of application required. 
As the females of our land become more generally educated, 
and have more leisure for the cultivation of their minds, no 
doubt more attention will be devoted to literary effort. The 
easy, natural manner of female authors is a marked feature. Dif- 
ferent motives prompt to authorship — love of fame, wealth, in- 
fluence, and a desire to do good. Persons are generally prompted 
to write by feeling that they know more of some particular sub- 
ject than most people, or something entirely unknown or un- 
thought of by any one save themselves. Some collect and ar- 
range information obtained from books, observation, or experience, 
or all combined. E. Hazen says : a The indispensable qualifications 
to make a writer are — a talent for literary composition, an accu- 



BIBLE READERS. 5 

rate knowledge of language, and an acquaintance with the subject 
to be treated." Good health and freedom from care are neces- 
sary for one who would give him or herself up to the severities 
of mental labor. Dr. Wynne says : " With him whose occupation 
is either intellectual or sedentary, or both, the nervous energy 
necessary to digest food is already abstracted by the operations 
of the mind ; and the meal taken under the circumstances is but 
partially digested and appropriated to the use of the body. The 
remainder acts as an irritant, and, if the practice be persevered 
in, terminates in dyspepsia, followed by that Protean train of 
nervous diseases which destroys the equanimity of mind, and 
finally terminates the life of so many of our most efficient and 
worthy business men, at the very time when their services are 
most valuable to their families and the community. The cares 
of business should be dismissed with the termination of the hours 
devoted to their pursuits, and their place supplied by those exer- 
cises or amusements which bring with them cheerfulness and ex- 
hilaration." Of all studies, the quiet and contemplative kind are 
most favorable to long life. Those of an exciting nature produce 
a reaction, sometimes, of the physical as well as intellectual 
powers. 

5. Bible Readers. An incalculable amount of good has 
been accomplished by this class of persons. The originator is 
Mrs. Raynard, the L. N. R. of the " Missing Link," " The Book 
and its Story," &c, who lived in London. " One hundred ladies 
have joined her as managers and superintendents. The ladies each 
select from among the uneducated class the best women they can 
find, and send them out to read Bibles and sell them to their own 
class. They have now two hundred such Bible women in Eng- 
land, Ireland, Scotland, and France, and they are meeting with 
unheard-of success. Mrs. Raynard told me they made soup for 
the poor in winter, and sold it to them very low, and in such a 
way that the poorest could have his bowlful for some trifling ser- 
vice ; and while one is serving the soup, others serve them with 
portions of God's word. Then the lady superintendents have tea 
meetings without number, and sewing meetings, and clothing 
meetings. Beside, the ladies must first instruct their readers 
every week or day in the Scriptures, in teaching, in meekness, in 
manner, in helping the sick, and sympathizing with all suffering, 
and, above all, teach them to lean only on God. They must also 
pay the Bible women, who give up their time to this work, and 
keep an account with each one. These lady readers or superin- 
tendents in England publish a monthly of their own, conducted 
by dear Mrs. Raynard, so that they can all communicate with 
one another ; and God sends them funds to the amount of $35,000 



6 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

the year.' 5 A lady of Baltimore writes me : " The Maryland Bi- 
ble Society employs three paid Bible readers — all women — at 
eight dollars per month each. These are purposely selected from 
the poorest class of pious women, because it is thought that per- 
sons of that class have readier access to the homes and hearts of 
the poor, beside the aid it affords to honest poverty. Independ- 
ently of this Bible effort, another has originated from the Lon- 
don charity, unfolded in the ' Missing Link.' " The lady of Bal- 
timore (Miss W.)^wrote from the Maryland Bible, &c, through 
the Word Witness : " Just one year ago, I engaged a pious poor 
woman, at two dollars per week, to labor among the destitute, 
vicious poor — a class that could not be reached by ordinary 
methods of voluntary effort, dwelling in localities that ladies 
might not safely visit. The work was to humanize these peo- 
ple ; to wash and clothe the children, and put them in Sabbath 
and public schools ; to read and pray, and teach their mothers ; 
and to relieve personal suffering. She has clone a good work. 
Another woman has been employed in South Baltimore, in the 
same calling. Recently, the ladies of the First Presbyterian 
Church have formed a union, and raised the salary of one of 
these female colportors, and thus the experiment promises to ex- 
pand itself into a permanent benevolent organization. I may 
say that the plan adopted, if vigorously and efficiently carried 
out, would rid our crowded alleys of half the suffering and nearly 
all the vices and impositions that now render them intolerable 
to the refined. On Christmas, I assisted to serve up a supper, 
provided by a good lady for the poorest of the poor. It was 
given in the district, and at the house of a widow, and under 
the care of our colportors. There were forty-eight women and 
children present, not ragged and hopeless, as they were one year 
ago, but tidy and bright, looking hopefully to the future, as 
though they felt there is kindness in the world. It was a 
pleasant sight to witness." The New York Female Auxiliary 
Bible Society now employs thirteen Bible readers. A brief but 
interesting account is given of them in the last report of that 
society, from which we copy : " From the reports of the Bible 
readers for only a part of the year, we find that they have paid 
more than seven thousand visits, gathered more than two hun- 
dred children into the Sunday school, sold and distributed Bi- 
bles, induced many to attend church, ministered to the wants of 
the destitute, established sewing schools, and, in more ways than 
we can enumerate, have gone about doing good." A Bible 
reader is now employed in Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania Bi- 
ble Societv. 



BANKERS AND BANKERS CLERKS. 7 

4. Bankers and Bankers' Clerks. Before the ex- 
istence of savings banks, the poor had no safe place of deposit, 
where they could receive interest, and whence they could with- 
draw their deposits at pleasure. If they loaned their money, there 
was no certainty of recovering it. If they tried to accumulate by 
saving what they had, it was not always secure from depredation. 
Consequently they were tempted to spend any surplus money they 
had, and often no forethought of the future could save them from 
anxiety and misery. Now, by industry and perseverance, they 
are enabled to accumulate something for contingencies — to pro- 
vide against want, sickness, old age, and slackness of employment. 
The idea of a savings bank was originated by a woman — Mrs. 
Priscilla Wakefield. It is a most worthy institution, and deserv- 
ing of support and patronage. Holding office in a bank is a very 
responsible situation. The numerous men defaulters that have 
disgraced themselves in the last few years, are sufficient proof 
that the temptation to appropriate unjustly is very great. It re- 
quires men and women of fixed principle, whose honor is dearer 
to them than life itself. We think women could very well man- 
age savings banks. They could at any rate attend in the female 
department, and in some parts of Europe do. We find in the 
census of Great Britain two female bankers reported. In the 
Englishwoman' } s Journal we read : " At St. Malo, a few years 
ago, the wife of a rich banker, during his absence, took her place 
at his desk amid the numerous clerks, received checks, and gave 
to the writer of this article French money in return. They are 
frequently found in offices, and often mainly conduct a husband's 
or a father's business." One of the Mrs. Rothschild, I have been 
told, even now spends two or three hours every day in her hus- 
band's banking house. Mrs. Mary Somerville says : " Three of 
the most beneficial systems of modern times are due to the bene- 
volence of English ladies — the improvement of prison discipline, 
savings banks, and banks for lending small sums to the poor." 
Not many years ago a banking house was conducted by a lady in 
Nashville, Tenn. She was a widow, but had during her first 
husband's life attended to some of the duties of the bank, and 
accompanied her husband when he visited New York on business. 
She is now the wife of one of the late candidates for the highest 
office in this nation — that of chief magistrate. A lady was em- 
ployed in a savings bank in Boston a few years back. A gentle- 
man who has been cashier in a bank for many years writes me : 
" I have no doubt that women might be qualified for bank and 
brokers' clerks as well as men. In the offices of cashier and tel- 
ler, they would have to come in contact with so many rough 
characters, I doubt whether it would do. I do not know the sal- 



8 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

aries paid in Europe, either in stores, shops, banks, or brokers' 
offices, but suppose it varies as it does in this country, according 
to the size of the city, the bank or broker's capital, the qualifi- 
cations and character, and the situations the persons occupy. 
The cashier receives more than the teller '• the teller often more 
than the clerk, and the clerks are graded. In large banks in the 
city of New York, the cashiers get from $4,000 to $6,000 per 
annum, while in the country banks they scarcely get half that 
amount. In the city their situations are very laborious, and 
very responsible, and many of them have been twenty-five or 
thirty years in the business before they got to be cashiers. Tel- 
lers receive in large cities from $2,500 to $3,000, and in small 
places from $1,200 to $2,000. Clerks get in New York banks 
from $600 to $3,000, taking the whole range from boys of seven- 
teen to men of sixty with families and great experience. In 
smaller towns they receive from $300 to $2,500, taking the same 
range, many of them getting not more than $1,500 at any time 
during their lives. In stores and shops the salaries are much 
less, say not much over one half in very many instances ; but per- 
sons in stores and shops have this advantage over bank clerks : 
when they learn the business, they are often taken into partner- 
ship with the proprietor, or they may set up in a similar business 
for themselves. But bank clerks have no such prospects before 
them. There may be salaries, in a few instances, over those men- 
tioned, but very seldom; and on the other hand, some young men 
are placed in business sometimes without any remuneration for the 
first year. I would also state that the situation of bank clerk, al- 
though very much sought for, is certainly not desirable, as $1,200 
or $1,500 will not support a family in any city of the United 
States, without the most rigid economy ; and then they have little 
or nothing to lay up for a rainy day. Many bank clerks in this 
city are no better off now than they were twenty years ago, though 
they have lived poorly and economized all the time. So, in some 
respects, the store clerk or salesman has the advantage. One 
reason why young men prefer becoming bank clerks to mercan- 
tile clerks is, that they have more time for themselves. Say, 
they commence by seven o'clock in a store, and nine at bank ; 
they get through by two or three o'clock in bank, and they have 
to work until night in a store. ' 

6. Brokers. This is a business in which very few, if any, 
women engage without the aid of the other sex. We are not 
aware that any women are stock brokers, exchange brokers, or 
insurance brokers. We suppose women could not very well con- 
duct the business without having to mix promiscuously with men 
on the street, and stop and talk with them in the most public 



COLONIZATIONISTS COLPORTOKS. 9 

places ; and the delicacy of woman would forbid that. But the 
wife, the sister, or daughter of a broker might perhaps conduct 
the indoor business of the house, or keep the books at least. In 
Paris, where women are extensively employed in various depart- 
ments of business, it would, perhaps, be more practicable for a 
woman to carry on the business than in this country. There 
are respects in which women of well-disciplined minds would be 
well suited for the vocation : they are their observance of order 

and method, and their close attention to details. 

♦ 

7. CoionizationistS. This is a business that would never 
have entered our minds for women to engage in, had it not been 
for the course pursued by Caroline Chisholm. Says the author 
of " Women and Work : " " Ask the emigrants who went out to 
Australia year after year, under the careful and wise system of 
Caroline Chisholm's colonization, how women can organize, and 
what professions they should fill. I think they would answer : 
As organizers of colonies, promoters of emigration, secretaries to 
colonies, &c." Many a husband and wife may thank her for the 
comforts of home life. Some years ago, Mrs. Farnum proposed 
taking from New York a shipload of women to California. The 
matter was laughed at and passed by ; but if we may believe the 
reports that came from California of miners wanting wives, per- 
haps it would not have been a bad plan to have taken out a sup- 
ply (in case they could have been had). In the early history of 
Virginia, women were brought over from Erjgland as wives for 
the men. " A society exists in England for the promotion of 
female emigration to Australia. Under the auspices of this so- 
ciety, about eleven hundred women, mostly distressed needle- 
women, of respectable character, have been sent to Australia, 
where they find employment, and, we presume, the most of them, 
husbands." 

8. Colportors, " This is an important field of mission- 
ary labor in our own land, where women might be employed to 
great advantage — namely, as colportors, or distributors of tracts 
and books. The Boards of Publication now employ men only, 
whose services must be paid at a much higher rate than women 
would require. There are widows who need this employment for 
support, and single women who need employment for health, and 
many women would like this way of doing good. In every place, 
women would be found suitable and willing to undertake this 
profession. It is one exactly suited to them. It enters into 
their domestic circle of feelings and pursuits; and honorable 
women, not a few, would be found ready to engage in the work. 
A number of men would be needed to penetrate the wild places 
of our land ; but throughout all the settled portions, women 

1* 



10 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

would be found the most effective agents. By this arrangement, 
a double gain would be secured. The talents of pious women, 
now allowed to be wasted on trifles, would be employed in the 
cause of moral improvement ; and those men who now give up 
their time, often at a great pecuniary sacrifice, to the colportor's 
duty, would be at liberty to enter into other pursuits more bene- 
ficial to themselves and to society." Are there none among the 
gentler sex consecrated to the work of promoting the glory of 
God and the good of their fellow beings ? Are none of those 
that owe all their privileges and blessings to the Bible, willing to 
make a sacrifice for its extension ? Are all so selfish, that the 
desire of personal gratification is the ruling, the only object for 
which they live ? a display in dress and style of living, the ac- 
quisition of property, or notoriety ? Are these the only objects 
of woman's exertions ? No : most women are too conscientious 
and unselfish to live for such a purpose. There are many that 
would gladly do what they could, but they have no definite plan 
in view. They know not exactly how to shape their course. If 
they were once started, they would neither lag nor faint in the 
race. Let such become colportors, deaconesses, physicians, 
painters, engravers, whatever best accords with their inclinations 
and abilities. Let them go forward. The mist will gradually 
disappear, the way be made clear, and they followed by others. 
It is best for one of strength and vigor to engage in the labors 
of a colportor. Walking from house to house all day is very 
fatiguing to persons not accustomed to being much on their feet. 
It requires a person that has at heart the good of her fellow 
beings, and is willing to converse with all classes and ages. It 
calls for a person of piety, and one of tact and judgment. 

9. Copyists. Law copying is done by young women in 
charge of the society in London for promoting the employment of 
women. Miss Bye, who is superintendent of the class, says : " Of 
course it took the writers some weeks to unlearn the usual fem- 
inine spider-legged fashion of inditing; some weeks more to deci- 
pher the solicitors' signs, contractions, and technical terms. We 
dare not pretend, in defending the opening of this trade to women, 
that there is here, as in printing, a deficiency of workers, a cry 
among the masters for more ; or that woman's work here, as in 
the telegraph offices, is intrinsically more valuable than that of 
the other sex." In France, lawyers often employ women to copy 
for them, and a number of women are employed by the French 
Government to write. At Washington, ladies have been em- 
ployed to copy, not only for congressmen as individuals, but to 
copy government documents ; and received the same salaries as 
men. A friend told me many ladies are thus employed at Wash- 



COPYISTS DEACONESSES. 11 

ington. She knows two who each receive salaries of $1,200 per an- 
num. Miss N. says some ladies in Washington make from $500 to 
§600 a winter, copying speeches and other documents for mem- 
bers of Congress. She knew a lady who wrote all the year at a 
salary of $1,200. " In Cincinnati, some lawyers employ women 
as copyists, when the work can be sent from the office." Ladies 
employed by lawyers must write a very clear, round, legible 
hand ; if any mistake is made, the writer must copy the manu- 
script anew. A young lady told me she used to write for a law- 
yer, and received three cents for every hundred words. One 
day she earned two dollars and a half. She wrote in the office 
of the lawyer. Many ladies, she says, are so employed in New 
York. Mrs. N., copyist, charges twelve and a half cents a page 
of foolscap, for copying, estimating her time at nine cents an 
hour. She writes mostly letters in English for foreigners, and 
receives twenty-five cents a letter, usually of one page and a 
half. She is very careful, she says, never to divulge the business 
of the individual for whom she writes — a something very essen- 
tial. Mrs. Blunt used to earn in Washington $700 or $800 a 
year for copying. One copyist charged $5 per week if she wrote 
at home, and $6 if away from home. I find that in the Western 
cities the prices for copying vary from eight cents to thirty-one 
cents a page. Ladies are occasionally employed at the Smith- 
sonian Institute for copying, and are paid 5 cents per 100 words. 
I believe in New York a very common price for copying is 4 
cents per 100 words. Miss W., an English lady, copied music 
about three years ago, and sent it to London to be sold. She 
often earned $12 a week. 

10. Deaconesses. The order of deaconess was instituted 
at the same time as that of deacon, and corresponds in duty with 
that office. We read of deaconesses in the last chapter of Ro- 
mans, Phoebe, Priscilla, Aquila, &c. The establishment of in- 
stitutions for deaconesses affords a home to the unmarried women 
of our land, and widows without children, and furnishes them 
with such work as their health and previous employments fit 
them for. It carries out the principle, " Unity is strength." It 
is founded on that true spring of success — sympathy arising from 
similarity of circumstances and sameness of employment. Minis- 
tering to the sick and poor is so well adapted to women, that 
their time might be pleasantly as well as profitably spent. The 
desire in women to be employed is thus gratified, and the good 
of others as well as themselves thereby promoted. Those re- 
ceived as members would find it most harmonious to be of the 
same religion, and they should be willing to come under the regu- 
lations of the institution. Such an institution would have to be 



12 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

conducted by a person of discretion, piety, and wisdom. The 
members usually dress in uniform. Comfortable clothing is al- 
ways furnished, boarding of course being provided in the es- 
tablishment. The duties of deaconess in Protestant institutions 
are the same as those of sisters of charity in nunneries and con- 
vents. The institutions are usually commenced by public or 
private contributions, and some by both. When once firmly es- 
tablished, the members might receive a fair compensation for 
their services from the sick that are able and willing to pay. It 
might go to the support of the institution, and those who saw 
proper to devote themselves to teaching might throw their profits 
into the general fund. But such institutions should be secured 
on such a firm basis that those women who joined the order 
would ever be certain of a home, and of a kind and careful at- 
tendance in sickness and old age. If institutions are established 
in various parts of the United States, an inmate of one, if tired 
of remaining at that, might, by request, and after consideration 
by the principal, or a board of trustees, be permitted to remove 
to another. There are a number of institutions in Europe for 
preparing women for the duties of deaconess. The first intitu- 
tion of modern times was established by Pastor Fliedner, at 
Kaiserwerth, Germany. " It has for its object the training of 
deaconesses — that is, female students to take charge of the sick 
and the poor, and superintend hospitals, infant and industrial 
schools, and, in short, to be the educators and preservers of 
humanity." An association has lately been formed in London 
of this order. Its object " is the diffusion of sanitary knowledge 
and promotion of physical training." " In Russia, the system for 
the practical training of deaconesses has spread in all directions. 
In Paris, Strasbourg, Echallens (in Switzerland), Utrecht, and 
England, the institution exists." Kings have not thought it be- 
neath them to assist in the support of such institutions. Miss 
Bremer mentions several going to Jerusalem to take charge of a 
hospital, which the King of Prussia founded at an expense of 
$50,000. We find two or three such institutions exist in the 
United States — one in New York, another in Pittsburg, and one 
in an incipient state in Baltimore. The one in New York is con- 
ducted by Sisters of the Holy Communion (Episcopalians). Five 
of them make their home at St. Luke's Hospital. One or two of 
the number are engaged in a parochial school connected with Dr. 
Muhlenberg's church. Those of the hospital nurse the sick dur- 
ing the day. They employ nurses to do the night nursing, ex- 
cept in very serious cases that require especial attention. Their 
dress is simple, black, with white collars and undersleeves, and, 
when in full dress, a Swiss muslin cap. They do not take vows 



DEACONESSES. 18 

like the nuns of the Roman Catholic church, nor do they give up 
all their property, but make a quarterly payment, according to 
their means. One devotes herself to the measuring out and dis- 
pensing of medicine. There is a hospital in Pittsburg in charge 
of some deaconesses from Kaiserwerth. They belong to the 
Evangelical Lutheran church. The institution was commenced 
by the Rev. W. A. Passavant, but is now incorporated by the 
State, and the " members are empowered to engage in all works 
of mercy, such as the care of the poor, sick, fatherless, insane, 
and the education of the ignorant and the orphan. The sisters 
live in community — dress simply, and generally alike, so as to 
avoid any unnecessary distinction and useless expenses. Appli- 
cants for admission go first for a month merely as visitors, and 
pay their own expenses going and returning. If both parties ap- 
prove, they then enter on probation for three months, and after- 
ward for nine months, or longer, as the institution may deem 
best. Then, if their purpose is still the same, they are received 
by a vote, according to the charter, as members. It is distinctly 
understood, that if a change in their views and purposes, or nearer 
or family duties require them to leave after this, they are at per- 
fect liberty to do so, but always, only, after giving the institution 
a due notice of three months, unless such a notification is impos- 
sible from the circumstances of the case. Those who are prepar- 
ing for the work among the sick learn the duties of an apothecary. 
All the sisters know how to mix medicines." Miss E. Blackwell 
says : " In the Catholic church the wants and talents of all classes 
are met. Single wealthy women become nuns, and so devote their 
riches and talents and time to good works. They associate with 
the most refined and best educated of both sexes. Poor single 
women find a home and social pleasures. It requires practical 
business habits to become even a successful sister of charity. 
They should enter with an active interest and zest into the duties 
of every-day life. These orders can never succeed well among 
Protestants, particularly until female physicians are introduced." 
The Minister of the Interior, writing from Italy to Mrs. Jameson, 
says : " Not only have we experienced the advantage of employ- 
ing the sisters of charity in the prisons, in the supervision of the 
details, in distributing food, preparing medicines, and nursing the 
sick in the infirmaries ; but we find that the influence of these 
ladies on the minds of the prisoners, when recovering from sick- 
ness, has been productive of the greatest benefit, as leading to 
permanent reform in many cases, and a better frame of mind al- 
ways : for this reason, among others, we have given them every 
encouragement." Many young ladies of education, wealth, and 
influence would, on becoming pious, or when disappointed in their 



14 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

hopes and aspirations, be likely to join such societies. At such 
times, many are willing to give themselves up entirely to works 
of active benevolence. Such a life, of course, involves some self- 
denials. Bishop Potter warmly advocated the introduction of 
such orders, and delivered an address in favor of it. The Bishop 
of Exeter recommended the establishment of such orders in 
England, and an institution for deaconesses has been opened in 
London. 

11. Dentists. Some time ago, in New York, a few ladies 
prepared themselves for the practice of dentistry. " We believe 
only one really practised, and she but a short time. We find 
her name in a New York directory as a dentist. It would be 
more agreeable to most ladies to have their teeth cleaned and 
plugged by a lady. They would not feel the same hesitancy in 
going alone at any time to a dentist of their own sex. Extracting 
teeth would require more nerve and strength than most ladies 
possess. Yet, if a woman has nerves sufficiently firm, and ability 
to control her sympathies, she may succeed. There are dental 
schools in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. A professor 
in the dental school at Philadelphia writes : "I would suggest 
that if any ladies desire to become efficient practitioners in some 
branches of dentistry, it would be better for them to apply to a 
reputable practitioner, and with time and attention become tho- 
roughly familiar with those branches. In doing so they will prove 
to the world their capability, and the rest in time will follow. 
Dentistry has been humorously called a c woman's profession.' " 
" There is nothing even in the surgical part of dentistry, to which 
she is not adapted. In this profession she will have a fair op- 
portunity to foil her enemies and accusers ; and her children's 
teeth would not be set on edge without the possibility of instant 
relief. There is no mystery in the dental structure, which the 
turnkey, in her magic hand, could not unlock ; and no terrible 
pain in tooth extraction, which her mystic power could not ex- 
ceedingly mitigate." Most profit arising to dentists is from 
making and inserting artificial teeth. It is a lucrative business, 
when properly understood, and one which affords constant em- 
ployment. 

12. Editresses. The most powerful instrument for dissem- 
nating general knowledge in the United States is the newspaper 
press. It does a great deal for promoting a love of letters ; and 
the cheapness of the papers is such as to render them accessible 
to almost every one. The literature of the day penetrates the 
most remote corner of our country. Obscure, indeed, is the 
place that knows not the printer's power. Even in California, 
more than a year ago, there were published 81 newspapers. In 



EDITRESSES. 10 

New York city alone were published 154 newspapers, and 114 
magazines. But this is not strange when we remember that no 
less than eighty languages are spoken there. A newspaper states 
that there are printed in Austria 10 newspapers, 14 in Africa, 
24 in Spain, 20 in Portugal, 30 in Asia, 65 in Belgium, 85 in 
Denmark, 90 in Russia and Poland, 320 in other German States, 
500 in Great Britain, and 1,800 in the United States. Taking 
merely newspaper and magazine literature into consideration, 
does not our republic offer inducements to intellectual culture ? 
Does she not reward talent and encourage industry ? Yes. Her 
general diffusion of knowledge and the learned men of her press 
give a positive reply. The dignity of man should be elevated, 
his affections purified, and his pursuits ennobled by the mighty 
influence of the press. Editors should live as ministers to the 
welfare of humanity. The aspiring character of our people and 
their thirst for knowledge will long make a heavy demand on the 
talent and taste of those who wield the editor's pen. There are 
several publications in the United States conducted exclusively 
by ladies ; some in which the assistant editors are ladies ; and a 
small number devoted to the interests of women alone. Several 
ladies have entered the editorial corps within the last few years. 
The Harpers, in their Magazine, state there are about six hundred 
literary and miscellaneous periodicals published in this country. If 
all the labor, as type setting, binding, &c, was done by women, what 
a fortunate thing it would be for many of the poor ! I have 
been told that when an article is sent to a newspaper, and is 
known to have come from the brain and the pen of a woman, 
ten to one, her compensation will be smaller for it, and in many 
cases it will be rejected. There are a few exceptions. Fanny 
Fern, for instance, receives, we have seen it stated, at the rate 
of $100 a column from Mr.Bonner for a contribution to the Ledger, 
The sum total he will pay her for the amount he has engaged will 
be $6,000. Mrs. B. receives $600 for editing a monthly paper. 
Some time back contributors to the Independent were paid $3 a 
column, and to the New York Observer at the same rate. Mr. 
L. told me that a man is paid $20 a week for making out an 
index for the New York Tribune, which could be done by 
any lady with a cultivated and well disciplined mind. The man 
that was employed not long since had been a wood engraver, and 
had received no special training for his duties in the Tribune 
office. The papers to be sent away are directed by machinery, 
which a lady could attend. Some one writes me the qualifications 
for his business are strength of mind and body. We think there 
is generally a heavy draft on either one or the other in every oc- 
cupation successfully pursued, and in some on both. Emile 



16 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Girardin was a French editress that died recently. Mrs. John- 
son, of Edinburgh, was for years editress of the Inverness 
Courier, which was published in her husband's name. Miss 
Parkes conducts the Englishwoman ] s Journal. Mrs. Swisshelm 
edited the Pittsburg Visitor with much vigor and ability. Mrs. 
Virginia L. French has charge of the literary department of a 
paper issued in Nashville, Tenn. Miss McDowell might have 
succeeded with the Woman' 1 s Advocate, if her noble efforts had 
been appreciated as they deserved. 

13. Government Officers. " Many Government offices 
could be creditably filled by intelligent and experienced women. 
Miss Wallace and Miss Thomas were employed as computers on 
the Coast Survey at Washington in 1854, with salaries each of 
$480, with perquisites making it $600. A man to do the same 
work would probably receive twice as much." " Mrs. Miller, at 
one time, was engaged in making observations of the weather — 
the thermometer, barometer, direction of winds, quantity of rain, 
&c, in which she was assisted by another person appointed by a 
society of which both sexes were members." Computations of 
this kind could be made at home. Mr. Blodgett, who had charge 
of the Smithsonian Institute in 1854, wrote : " The discussion of 
observations in physical science, meteorological observations par- 
ticularly, has never been undertaken in a general manner until 
attempted in this department of the Smithsonian Institute, and I 
have found that accuracy and despatch require well-trained 
minds of great endurance. Only the best minds can successfully 
undertake scientific calculations and computations ; and these 
must possess a sort of half masculine strength and endurance." 
Yet we would not offer this as a discouragement. If it has been 
done, it can be done again. " During Mr. Fillmore's administra- 
tion, two women wrote for the Treasury Department at Washington, 
at salaries of twelve and fifteen hundred a year," Several ladies 
are employed in different parts of the United States for copying 
by registers of deeds; but the majority are relatives of the regis- 
ters. In some towns of the East, however, other ladies than rela- 
tives are employed, who receive $1 per day for their services. 
Miss Olive Rose has performed the duties of the register of deeds, 
at Thomaston, Maine. She writes : " I was officially notified of 
the election, required to give bonds, &c. I am unable to state 
the exact amount of salary, as it is regulated by whatever business 
is done in the office. Perhaps it may average between $300 and 
$400 yearly." The Duchess of Leuchtenberg was elected to 
preside over the Imperial Academy of Science, in Russia, a few 
year& ago. An acquaintance told me that in the warehouses at the 
London docks, silks, shawls, and such goods are exposed for sale, 



GOVERNMENT OFFICERS — LAWYERS. 17 

and many ladies go down in their crrriages and purchase. If any 
female is suspected of concealing on her person goods that she 
has appropriated in the warehouse, the watchmen who guard the 
place remark they would like to detain her for a few minutes, and 
convey her to a room, where a woman is in attendance to search 
her. The present collector of customs at Philadelphia writes : 
u The only instance of employment of women in connection with 
the custom house here has been, while Liverpool steamers were com- 
ing to this port, some years ago, when one or two were employed 
to search female emigrants, to prevent smuggling on their persons. 
The employment was only for a day or two at a time, and is now 
discontinued." Some time ago it was feared that large quantities 
of precious stones and laces were concealed on the persons of 
some women, and so smuggled into New York. Consequently 
"two American female searchers were inaugurated in the revenue 
service as aids. They each receive $500 per annum, and are paid 
by the month. Men receive $1,095 (or $3 per day) for similar 
services. The qualifications needed are intelligence, tact, and in- 
tegrity. They spend but one or two hours on the arrival of each 
steamer or passenger received from abroad." I think, in European 
countries, female police, who examine the persons and passports of 
women, receive the same salaries as men. 

14. Lawyers. We cannot question the right of woman 
to plead at the bar, but we doubt whether it would be for her 
good. She might study law, to discipline her mind and to store 
it with useful information. She might profitably spend, in that 
way, time which would otherwise be devoted to music, painting, 
or the languages. But the noisy scenes now witnessed in a court 
room are scarcely compatible with the reserve, quietude, and 
gentleness that characterize a woman of refinement. Theodore 
Parker said : " As yet, I believe, no woman acts as a lawyer ; but 
I see no reason why the profession of law might not be followed 
by women as well as men. He must be rather an uncommon 
lawyer who thinks no feminine head could compete with him. 
Most lawyers that I have known are rather mechanics at law than 
attorneys or scholars at law ; and, in the mechanical part, woman 
could do as well as man — could be as good a conveyancer, could 
follow precedents as carefully, and copy forms as nicely. I think 
her presence would mend the manners of the court — of the bench, 
not less than of the bar." A lady lawyer would not be without a 
precedent, for we read from a note in " Women Artists :" " Chris- 
tina Pisani wrote a work which was published in Paris, 1498. It 
gives an account of the learned and famous Novella, the daughter of 
a professor of the law in the university of Bologna. She devoted 
herself to the same studies, and was distinguished for her scholar- 



18 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

ship. She conducted her father's cases; and, having as much 
beauty as learning, was wont to appear in court veiled." We sup- 
pose this is the same young lady of whom we read elsewhere : 
" At twenty-six she took the degree of doctor of laws, and began 
publicly to expound the laws of Justinian. At thirty she was 
elevated to a professor's chair, and taught the law to a crowd of 
scholars from all nations. Others of her sex have since filled 
professors' chairs in Bologna." While we would not encourage 
women to act publicly as counsellors at law, we would claim for 
them the privilege of acting as attorneys. Writing out deeds, 
mortgages, wills, and indentures, would be a pleasant occupation 
for such women as are qualified and fond of sedentary life. We 
know that the hearts of most women would prompt them to re- 
lieve the poor and oppressed : but might they not do it in some 
other way as efficiently as by pleading at the bar ? If the weak 
seek their aid, let them bestow the benefit of their legal lore. If 
the helpless seek their protection, let them bring their informa- 
tion and counsel to bear upon the case, but not by public speak- 
ing. By personal effort, or by applying to the good of the 
other sex, they may accomplish much. If a woman involve her- 
self in the intricacies of law, may she not lose those tender traits 
that endear her to the other sex, and in time discard those graces 
that render her gentle and lovely at home ? The profession of 
the law is one suited to the inclinations, nature, and taste of but 
very few women. But if a lady will practise law, she will need 
great clearness of mind, a good insight into the motives of others, 
fearlessness in expressing her convictions of right, and ability in 
refraining from saying more than she should. 

15. Lecturers. Lecturing is addressing people through the 
sense of hearing ; writing is addressing them through the sense of 
sight. An individual can address a larger number by the latter 
plan than the former. Many people that would not devote the time, 
trouble, and expense to investigate books, will give their twenty-five 
cents to hear a lecture on a given subject. Bev. Mr. Higginson 
says : " We forget that wonderful people, the Spanish Arabs, among 
whom women were public lecturers and secretaries of kings, while 
Christian Europe was sunk in darkness." " In Italy, from the 
fifteenth to the nineteenth century, it was not esteemed unfeminine 
for women to give lectures in public to crowded and admiring 
audiences. They were freely admitted members of learned soci- 
eties, and were consulted by men of preeminent scientific attain- 
ments, as their equals in scholarship." Theodore Parker felt the 
importance of public lecturing, and expressed gratification that 
women were occupying the field so successfully. In the Female 
Medical College of Philadelphia, great attention is given to the 



LECTURERS LIBRARIANS. 19 

study of physiology ; and several graduates from that institution 
have lectured upon this subject, one or two of them with great 
success. It is thought best that a lecturer upon physiology should 
be a physician, all the branches of medical science being so in- 
timately connected, that the separation of one from the whole is 
like the dismemberment of the human body, producing almost the 
same effect upon the severed member. " The field for competent 
female lecturers on physiological subjects is as broad as the na- 
tion, and promises a rich harvest for as many as can possibly be 
engaged in it, for the next half century." Dr. Gregory, of the 
New England Female Medical College, writes : " Some of the 
graduates of this college have lectured to ladies more or less on 
physiology, hygiene, &c, and with good success. One in particular 
has given courses of lectures, illustrated with the apparatus of the 
college, to the young ladies in our four State Normal Schools, with 
great satisfaction to the principals and pupils. One of our grad- 
uates is resident physician, and teacher and superintendent of 
health in the Mount Hoiyoke Female Seminary, where there are 
almost three hundred pupils," Other female seminaries throughout 
the country ought to be thus supplied. Among those who lecture 
on physiology are Mrs. Fowler, Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Johnson. 
In cities, a number of ladies might deliver lectures in private 
schools, academies, and colleges, on physiology and hygiene. 
Quite a number of ladies have delivered temperance lectures, and 
some were employed at one time by the State Temperance So- 
ciety of New York. Lecturers of note receive from $50 to $500 
for a single lecture, beside having their travelling expenses paid. 
When lecturing on their own responsibility, the entire proceeds 
are theirs, save expenses for room, gas, and (in winter) fuel. 
Lectures are most generally given before societies, that pay the 
lecturer a specified sum. Lucy Stone was paid $263 for her lec- 
tures in Bangor, Maine. Miss Dwight lectured on art, a few 
years ago, charging at first ten dollars for a series of six lectures, 
but afterward she reduced the price to five dollars. 

16. Librarians. There is a Woman's Library in New 
York. The object is to furnish women — particularly working 
women, who are not able to subscribe to other libraries— with a 
quiet and comfortable place to read in, during their leisure mo- 
ments. A lady in Darby, Pennsjdvania, attends a town library 
that was established in 1785. It has always been kept in the 
house of her family, and she has had no occasion to employ assist- 
ance outside of her family. In the Mercantile Library of New 
York, two ladies have charge of the reading room. One re- 
ceives $200, and the other $250 a year. Lady librarians receive 
from one third to one half as much as men. The librarian says 



20 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

they are not physically so capable, and otherwise not so well 
qualified. They could always do the lighter work of a library. 
They are employed all the year, and spend about eight hours in 
the reading room. The secretary of the Apprentice's Library in 
Philadelphia writes : " Both our principal librarians are ladies, 
and we have two assistants of the same sex. The principals re- 
ceive $308, and the assistants $90 each, per annum. The girls' 
library, in which one of the principals and the two assistants are 
employed, is open five afternoons in the week, from three to four 
hours each afternoon and evening. It is only lately we have 
employed a lady for a librarian for the boys' department, and we 
find the change to be a happy one. The boys are more respect- 
ful, more easily managed, and kept in better order than formerly, 
and the number of readers has increased." The gentleman who 
has charge of the public library in Boston writes : " We employ 
eleven American ladies, who do all the work of a library in its 
various branches, under the direction of the superintendent, and 
subject to revision by him or an able male assistant. Some cover 
and collate books, some go from place to place to get books, and 
some are occupied entirely with writing and copying catalogues, 
shelf lists, records, &c. The ladies are paid $7 per week. Some 
spend eight and some ten hours in the library. Much of the 
labor performed by males is the same as that performed by 
females ; but in every instance, save one, paid for at higher rates. 
Why, I cannot say. The office of superintendent requires learn- 
ing and experience. In Boston, the rate of wages for men is 
higher than for females, Ladies are paid pretty well here, in 
comparison with what they are paid for work elsewhere. Teach- 
ers are paid higher than in other places. A competent person 
soon learns the duties of a library, but experience adds to her 
value. Ladies are employed in preference to men because they 
are competent, because it is a good field for female labor, because 
they have a good influence on those who transact business with 
the library, and, I doubt not, because their work can be had at 
less rates than men's. Our schools are graded, and in schools of 
a given grade there are divisions. Of course a graduate from 
the highest division of the highest grade, other things being 
equal (that is talent, &c), is the person for us. A qualified 
lady is as good for work as a qualified man. The work of a 
librarian cultivates the mind. All advantages, aside from educa- 
tion, depend upon the taste of the lady employed. If fond of 
reading and ambitious to excel, she can, by faithful application 
out of library hours, succeed. Three dollars is the lowest price 
for which a lady can be comfortably boarded in Boston." " In 
the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, a lady is permanently 



MAGAZINE COSTTRIBUTORS. 21 

employed as librarian. She receives a salary of $500 per annum, 
and is employed six hours a day. The qualifications needed for 
the post are reading, writing, some knowledge of French, Ger- 
man, &c." 

17. Magazine Contributors. Some of our periodical 
literature is futile and unsatisfying. It is light and trivial in 
its nature. It may delight a few hours, but then follows the 
reaction — a dull and heavy sinking of the heart — a sluggish 
dreariness — a neglect of duty — a disdain for the actual realities 
of life. The prose of most magazines is only love dreams — the 
poetry froth. Such light nutriment is unfit for the souls of wo- 
men — such ethereal diet can never satisfy the cravings of an im- 
mortal mind. But some improvement has taken place in part 
of our magazine literature, and a few of our reviews equal those 
of any country. Subjects are as numerous as the objects around 
us, and suited to all moods and diversities of mind. To the 
contributor, I would say : Your writing will be likely to find 
readers — whether it be grave or gay — sad or sprightly — witty or 
jovial; whether one making a draught on the imagination or the 
judgment ; whether one displaying your own attainments, or 
calling to aid the opinions and acquirements of others; in short, 
one of thought, fancy, or facts. Your friends may like your ideas 
draped in poetry, or the more substantial dress of prose. One 
is like gold, the other like iron. One serves for ornament, the 
other for use. The true poet is a gifted person ; a heaven-born 
talent does he or she possess. If you have good descriptive tal- 
ents, you can write stories, laying the scenes in far-away countries 
that are not much known, and yet eliciting some interest. And 
as to the subjects of a moral caste, their name is legion. Maga- 
zine writing furnishes a palatable way of drawing attention to 
individual foibles, or furnishing a satire on the inconsistencies 
and exactions of society in general. If you attempt to write 
natural stories, let your scenes and events be such as occur in 
every-day life. It has been suggested that a good publication, 
like the Atlantic Monthly, conducted entirely by women, would 
do great good, but we fear it would not be supported. I was 
told, however, by the gentleman who has charge of Harpers 
Magazine, that two thirds of the articles are contributed by 
women, and they receive better prices than men would. The 
Saturday Press says that Harper* s Magazine pays its writers 
$7.50 to $10 per page; the Atlantic Monthly, from $6 to 10j 
the Knickerbocker, $3, which is equal to $5 for Harper and $6 
for the Atlantic; the North American Review, SI. 50 per page. 
The prices mentioned are said by one supposed to know, to be 
exaggerated, and made the exception, not the rule. Mr. H. C. 



22 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Carey, in an article styled " Rewards of Authorship," writes : 
"I have now before me a statement from a single publisher, in 
which he says that to Messrs. Willis, Longfellow, Bryant, and All- 
ston, his price was uniformly $50 for a poetical article, long or 
short — and his readers know that they were generally very short ; 
in one case only fourteen lines. To numerous others, it was from 
$25 to $40. In one case he has paid $25 per page for prose. 
To Mr. Cooper he paid $1,800 for a novel, and $1,000 for a 
series of naval biographies, the author retaining the copyright 
for separate publication ; and in such cases, if the work be good, 
its appearance in the magazine acts as the best of advertisements. 
To Mr. James, he paid $1,200 for a novel, leaving him also the 
copyright. For a single number of his journal, he has paid to 
authors $1,500 " 

18. Missionaries. Miss Rice, a missionary in Constan- 
tinople, has a large school for girls. Some of her scholars live in 
Constantinople, but most of them are from abroad — different parts 
of Turkey and Western Asia. " In England, Scotland, Ireland, 
and Germany, females organize societies of their own, and send 
out teachers and readers of their own sex. Ladies in England 
have had a society there twenty-five years, expressly for sending 
out and sustaining single ladies to work for heathen women, and 
they have already themselves sent two hundred into the field, at 
a cost of many thousands of pounds. If any of the lady mission- 
aries sent out by the ladies' society in England desire to leave 
the work within five years, they shall be at liberty to do so, but 
shall refund to that society the cost of sending them out." Mrs. 
Ellen B. Mason, a missionary of Burmah, is now in New York, 
endeavoring to obtain female missionaries to return with her. A 
lady (Mrs. Bigelow) was employed among the city missionaries 
in Boston, at a salary of $350. From the last reports of the 
American Board of Foreign Missions, the Old School Presby- 
terian, the Protestant Episcopal, the Methodist, and Dutch Re- 
formed, we find 451 lady missionaries were supported by their 
Boards at the time of making out the reports. The American 
Board had in charge 185 among foreign nations, and among the 
Indians 41 = 226. Of those sent out by this Board, 26 are un- 
married. The Old School Presbyterian has 78 among the In- 
dians (33 unmarried), and among heathen 53 (3 of the number 
single) = 131. The Baptist Foreign Missions number 34 (none 
unmarried). The American Baptist Union require every lady and 
gentleman that go out as missionaries from their Board to marry 
before they go. The Dutch Reformed have 11 among foreign 
nations. The Protestant Episcopal have 26 foreign missionaries 
(all married). The Methodist 17 (2 unmarried). In a manual 



MEDICAL MISSIONARIES. 23 

for the use of missionaries and missionary candidates in connec- 
tion with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church, we find the laborers needed for the foreign field are : 1st, 
ordained ministers of the gospel ; 2d, physicians ; 3d, school 
teachers ; 4th, printers ; 5th, farmers and mechanics ; 6th, 
unmarried female teachers. In referring to all the other classes 
but the first mentioned, it reads : " Though not called to preach 
the gospel, their Christian profession requires from them the 
same devotedness to the cause of Christ, according to the circum- 
stances in which the providence of God has placed them, that is 
required from the ministers of the gospel. The application 
should be in writing, and the candidate should state briefly his 
age, education, employment, the length of time he has been a pro- 
fessor of religion, his motive and reasons for desiring to be a mis- 
sionary, the field he prefers, and the state of his health. For a 
female this information may be given through a third person. 
No person will be appointed to the service of the Board until 
the executive committee have obtained as thorough a knowledge 
as possible of his or her character. For this purpose a personal 
acquaintance is very desirable. In all cases, written testimonials, 
full and explicit, must be forwarded." The treasurer of the Pres- 
byterian Board said the salary depends on place and qualifica- 
tions. The Treasurer of the Dutch Reformed Missions said a 
single lady receives from 8300 to $400, according to her qualifi- 
cations. Piety and a good common education are all that is nec- 
essary. They learn the language after arriving at their place of 
destination. None go without a certificate from a physician, say- 
ing they are free from organic disease. If their health fails so 
that they cannot recover, their passage home is paid, and they 
are supported for one year after. The minister connected with 
the Methodist Board said the salary depends on the places, and 
no particular preparation is requisite. They have many more 
applicants than they have places for. 

19. Medical Missionaries. An association in Phil- 
adelphia educates a limited number of ladies to go out as medical 
missionaries. Any information in regard to this association may 
be obtained from Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, 1418 Bittenhouse square, 
Philadelphia. The enterprise opens to such missionaries a wide 
field of usefulness, that cannot be reached in any other way. A 
number are now wanting in foreign countries. Bev. Mr. Dwight, 
writing from Constantinople in 1852, very highly commends the 
plan of giving to some female missionaries a medical education. 
He refers to the secluded lives of the females in oriental nations, 
to their ignorance, and the superstitious reverence felt by the 
people for those acquainted with diseases and their remedies. He 
thinks that in Constantinople, among all ranks of people, and even 



24: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

among the Mohammedans, a female physician would find constant 
practice, and gain an access to the female portion of the commu- 
nity that missionaries cannot. And, if pious, in the capacity of 
physician, she could do much to promote their spiritual welfare. 
A knowledge of the Turkish language would be indispensable ; 
and some acquaintance with French and Italian, Dr. Dwight rec* 
ommends. And it was thought by some of the missionaries in 
India, before the rebellion occurred, that medical missionary ladies 
could accomplish much good there, especially at Calcutta. Mis- 
sionaries in various other countries have also given it as their 
opinion that a great deal of good might be done in heathen coun- 
tries by medical ladies. 

20. Physicians. It is only within the last few years that 
women have received any preparation for the practice of medicine 
in our country. But it is now advancing in a way that is very 
gratifying to the friends of the cause, and is beginning to be ap- 
preciated by the people. Many of the most learned and talented 
men in the profession approve of women devoting themselves 
to the practice of medicine on their own sex and children. 
The mildness and amiability of woman, her modesty, her delica- 
cy and refinement, all tend to make her acceptable at the bed- 
side. Her quick insight into the ailments of others and her 
promptness in offering a remedy enhance her value. Some think 
the modesty and delicacy that should characterize a physician 
are lost to a lady in acquiring a knowledge of the profession. 
We would think not any more than by a gentleman. "Why should 
the result be different ? And surely a woman wants in her phy- 
sician, whether male or female, a person of pure thoughts and 
feelings. Some say women have not firmness and nerve enough 
to perform surgical operations — that if they have, it is only ani- 
mal force. What is it but animal force that gives the superiority 
to men (if they are superior) ? Some say that such a profession 
may call woman among an objectionable class of people. u The 
fact that the practice of medicine draws its support from the 
miseries and sufferings of the world is no objection to its respect- 
ability. What profession is there that does not draw its support 
from some suffering, necessity, or disability ? — unless it be that of 
the mountebank." Another objection urged is, that women lose 
their delicacy by the study and practice of anatomy under a male 
physician. This offensive feature is removed in the Female Medi- 
cal College of Philadelphia, where that post has been filled by a 
woman for six or seven years. It is filled, writes one of the pro- 
fessors, to the full satisfaction, I believe, alike of the class and 
the faculty. In 1758, Anna Manzolini was professor of anato- 
my in Bologna. We believe, if a lady acquires a knowledge of 
medicine, it should be a thorough one. Undoubtedly too much 



PHYSICIANS. 25 

strong medicine has been used in the United States, and that will 
account to some extent for the bad health of American women. 
Night practice and the inclemencies of the weather are the greatest 
difficulties a woman must contend with in the practice of medi- 
cine. If a lady has means, she can command a conveyance of her 
own. As to practising at night, she can have some one to accom- 
pany her, if in the city. If in a town, village, or the country, 
she will be likely to know who the people are, and have a con- 
veyance sent for her. If a woman acquires a thorough knowl- 
edge of medicine, she can better promote the well-being and pre- 
serve the health of herself and children. No lady should under- 
take the practice of medicine unless she feels competent in every 
way to do so. If she does, let her enter with her soul into it, 
and keep constantly in view her object to relieve the suffering 
and bring health to the diseased. The practice of medicine is 
more renumerative than teaching. Mrs. Hale, who strongly ad- 
vocates the practice of medicine by ladies, says : " Teachers grow - 
out of fashion as they grow old ; physicians, on the contrary, gain 
credit and reputation from length of practice." There is one de- 
partment of medicine that we think belongs to women, and women 
alone. It is midwifery. In the feudal times many ladies of rank 
and wealth prescribed and measured out medicines for their ten- 
ants, and many women practised midwifery. It is proved by Dr. 
Saul Gregory, of Boston, founder of the New England Female 
Medical College, that the practice of male physicians in the depart- 
ment of midwifery is not only injurious, but destructive of human 
life. He writes : " I have within the past six months made an 
effort to ascertain the number of lady graduates, having written 
to the different schools where they have graduated. From the 
number certainly ascertained, with the addition of a probable 
number of others, I should say that there are at least two hun- 
dred graduated female physicians in the United States. The 
number from this (the New England Female Medical College) 
is thirty-four. The field is broad enough, of course, for 
many thousands; and to women of good natural abilities and 
suitable acquirements there is a prospect of success in all of 
the cities and large villages of the country. They will more 
readily find professional employment now and henceforward than 
they have during the past ten years, inasmuch as the idea of 
female medical practice has become more familiar to the public 
mind, and the custom is becoming gradually established. The 
tuition in medical colleges generally is from $60 to $80 a term. 
Board is from $2 to $4, according to circumstances. About $30 
worth of medical books are needed. This college has a scholar- 
ship fund, affording free tuition to a large number of students 
2 



26 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

from any part of the world." Dr. Gregory expresses our views in 
regard to more unoccupied women entering the profession of 
medicine, so much better than we could do, that we will transcribe 
what he says on the subject : " Man, the lord of creation, has 
the world before him, and can choose his profession or pursuit — 
war, politics, agriculture, commerce, mechanic arts, mercantile 
affairs (not excepting ribbon and tape), and a thousand vocations 
and diversions. There are said to be 40,000 physicians in the 
United States. 20,000 of these ought to give place to this number 
of women, and turn their attention to pursuits better adapted to 
their strong muscles and strong minds. In addition to providing 
for the self support of 20,000 or more women, this change would 
relieve that number of men, and secure to the country the benefit 
of their mental and manual industry — quite an item in our politi- 
cal economy and national wealth. Of course, this very desirable 
change cannot be brought about so suddenly as to create any 
great disturbance in the established order of things, even if the 
enterprise is carried forward with all possible vigor ; so that phy- 
sicians now in the field need not be greatly alarmed in prospect 
of female competition." We think, all diseases peculiar to wom- 
en, or surgical operations on women requiring any exposure of 
person, should be treated and performed by women alone. Many 
a woman suffers for months, or years, and often a lifetime, be- 
cause of that instinctive delicacy that makes her rather suffer 
than be treated by a male physician. Those that prepare them- 
selves as physicians should be ladies of honor, education, and re- 
finement. In most families, after the minister of the gospel, the 
physician holds the next highest place in the esteem of the mem- 
bers. Other subjects than those of medicine are often discussed, and 
the advice of a physician sought on matters of vital importance to 
those interested. The free, unembarrassed entrance of a physician 
into the sanctum of home, gives an opportunity of learning much 
that should be sacredly preserved in their own hearts. A lady 
physician needs firmness and dignity in the maintenance of her 
rights and opinions. When a woman is weak both in body and 
mind, timid and fearful, how much better can one of her own sex 
soothe her ! It may be the nurse has not time, in a charitable, or 
even in a pay institution. But if her physician is a woman, well 
acquainted with her profession, and possessing discernment, sym- 
pathy, and some knowledge of the human heart, how readily may 
she read the inner as well as the outer wants of her patient ! She 
will treat her gently and tenderly ; and if the patient be a mother, 
the physician will see her family now and then, to relieve her pa- 
tient's anxiety. If she is poor; she will speak to some of her rich 
patients, or acquaintances, to see that she is furnished with suita- 



PHYSICIANS. 27 

He employment when she is well. And so she will interest her- 
self about those matters most male physicians would never think 
of, or, if they did, would consider beneath their attention. " In 
Paris, for a long period, women have studied medicine with the 
best physicians, who used them as supplements, to attend the poor 
and do some of the hospital practice." Two lady physicians be- 
came quite distinguished in Paris, and a hospital was in the en-a 
tire charge of one. The statistics and professional reports of j 
these ladies are now accepted by the best physicians in all coun- 
tries. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell has lately established a hospital 
in New York city, where ladies studying medicine can have the 
benefits arising from the observation and experience acquired in 
a hospital. This has long been considered almost essential in the 
education of male students. In the same city is a preparatory 
school of medicine conducted by professors connected with the 
medical schools of the city They give separate instruction to a 
class of ladies, who are admitted to the clinical teachings of two 
of the largest dispensaries in the city. These dispensaries fur- 
nish upwards of 60,000 cases of disease annually. In 1850, a 
charter was granted to the Female Medical College of Pennsyl- 
vania. A college was commenced in Boston about the same time. 
Both of these schools are for females exclusively, and each has 
graduated about fifty pupils. In the Pennsylvania Medical Uni- 
versity both sexes are received. In some branches the presence 
of mixed classes is embarrassing to both professors and pupils, 
and that free communication desirable for acquiring and impart- 
ing information is partially checked. This difficulty is done 
away in some female colleges by employing competent lady pro- 
fessors. In Europe, women are not permitted to receive instruc- 
tion with the male students, but in hospital practice they have 
excellent opportunities of gaining information as nurses and phy- 
sicians. I know of no pursuit that offers a more inviting field for 
educated women than the practice of medicine. The ability of 
woman to study and practice medicine has been satisfactorily 
demonstrated. Some ladies have graduated at both the allopa- 
thic and homoeopathic schools in Cleveland. The allopathic school 
in that place was the first to admit ladies. Different motives actu- 
ate ladies in the study of medicine. The wives of some manufac- . 
turers, planters, and others, who reside where medical advice is not 
easily obtained, study medicine that they may prescribe for their 
husbands' employees. Some study medicine that they may have 
something to rely upon in case other resources should fail them. 
Some teachers have studied that they may instruct their pupils 
in the laws of hygiene and remedies for disease. Quite a number 
of lady physicians are employed in female boarding schools. The 



2S THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

benefit resulting from having the advice of a physician at any 
hour of the day or night is very great, and must relieve the super- 
intendents of schools and absent parents from much anxiety. 
Some ladies prefer giving advice at their residences. A lady 
that devotes herself to a speciality should endeavor to keep posted 
in all the branches of her profession, so far as she can without 
neglecting to acquire all the information possible in her special- 
ity. " In the United States there are 40,564 physicians, 191 sur- 
geons, 5,132 apothecaries, 456 chemists, 923 dentists, 59 oculists, 
59 patent medicine makers. There are 35 medical colleges, 
230 professors, and about .5,000 students." Dr. Ann Preston, 
of the Pennsylvania Female Medical College, writes me : " Of 
those in practice who graduated with us, quite a number have 
found it very remunerative, and the prospect for others to secure 
practice is most encouraging, if they only possess the requisite 
qualifications. The desire to employ ladies as physicians is 
constantly extending, and my faith in the triumphant and ex- 
tensive vindication of the movement deepens from year to year. 
There are openings in perhaps nearly all the cities and vil- 
lages of our land — certainly in Eastern Pennsylvania; but in 
choosing a physician, people must have confidence in the sound 
judgment, good character, and professional ability of those they 
employ. A woman settling among strangers is more liable to 
suspicion than a man ; and in such a case it takes time, and a 
long continuance in well doing, to become established in a lucra- 
tive practice. It also requires means ; and unless these are 
abundant, it is much better for the lady physician to settle 
where she is already known and respected, and where, among her 
friends, she can live at small expense. Still, in one or two cases, 
our students have gone successfully among strangers, earning 
enough to bear their expenses during the first two years. The 
cost of fitting a lady of moderate abilities for the practice of medi- 
cine varies. The whole cost of two or more courses of lectures 
and graduation is $175. Board here is from $3 to $5 a week 
for students, everything included. The needful text books 
would cost from $20 to $25 ; then travelling expenses, clothes, 
&c. I have known ladies commence with only one or two hun- 
dred dollars in advance, teach school during the summers, and 
graduate in three or four years. Sometimes these have come as 
beneficiaries. Still it is much more comfortable to have six or 
seven hundred to depend upon during the course of study. The 
time also varies, but we think no person should graduate who 
has not studied two years and upward. A large proportion of 
our graduates have studied medicine three years, and several have 
spent the next year in the hospital in New York. We are about 



PHYSICIANS. 29 

opening a hospital here, which, in case of some, will obviate this 
necessity. I believe ladies in practice here generally make the 
charges common among men physicians ; and several of them 
realize a handsome competence, and are gladdened by seeing, 
year by year, that prejudice is passing away, and that medicine 
is proving a fitting and glorious sphere for the exercise of woman's 
best powers." There are several regularly educated female phy- 
sicians engaged in the practice of medicine in Philadelphia, some 
in New York, and some in Boston, with a few in other cities of 
the North, South, and West, and here and there scattered through 
towns, villages, and the country. There is an opening for one or 
two well-qualified physicians in New Orleans that can speak the 
Italian and Spanish languages. Many physicians find it an ad- 
vantage to have a knowledge of the French and German languages, 
on account of the large foreign population in our country. Dr. 
Elizabeth Blackwell writes : " It is very difficult by letter to 
answer your question about medical education. It is almost im- 
possible for a lady to get a good medical education without going 
to Europe. Philadelphia or Boston would give a woman the 
legal right to practise medicine, and that is the chief value of 
what is given, for the exclusively theoretical instruction of those 
colleges could be as well obtained by reading and private tuition. 
New York can furnish much valuable practical instruction, but 
not the legal right. Between the two places, a student who will 
spend four years may become a respectable young physician, 
without going to Europe ; but fully that period of time is neces- 
sary to pick up scattered knowledge, &c. A lady should be able 
to command $2,000 during the four years. She is otherwise very 
much crippled in her studies. There is a real necessity for women 
physicians; therefore, in course of time they will be created; but 
the imperfect efforts and most inadequate preparation of those 
who now study, rather retard the movement, and the creation of 

practice is a very slow thing." I called on Mrs. , M. D. She 

goes out at night when called — sometimes alone, sometimes takes 
her female student. She thinks there must be openings South 
and West, and that the prospect for lady physicians is very good. 
She supposes the cost of a medical education would be about 

$1,500. I called on Mrs. , M. D., who practises medicine, 

and often lectures on diseases and their remedies. She walks to 
see her patients, or rides in stages, but the majority come to her 
dwelling in office hours. She never goes out at night except where 
she is acquainted. She has a small number of students. She has a 
speciality, but does not confine herself to it. She attends several 
families by the year, charging, I think, $200 a year. She thinks 
many intelligent ladies might, if they would qualify themselves 
thoroughly, succeed in establishing themselves as physicians. 



30 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

21. Preachers. A friend once said a the professions of 
ministers and lawyers ought to accord. One is the interpreter 
of the divine law, the other of human law. A preacher is a 
lawyer for heaven." The promptings and workings of the human 
heart must be well understood by a minister. One in this holy 
office should not connive at the faults of her congregation, or 
give herself up to the acquirement of popular applause. We think 
one half the good accomplished in a church is done by the 
ladies of the church, particularly single women. And we know 
well that ministers are aware of this, and readily enlist the ladies 
of their congregations in good works. In old times, Angela de 
Foligno was celebrated as a teacher of theology. " In Spain, 
Isabella of Rosena converted Jews by her eloquent preaching, 
and commented upon the learned Scotus before cardinals and 
archbishops." In modern times, two or three ladies have studied 
theology, and preached with success. Mrs. Blackwell and Mrs. 
Jenkias are both said to be ladies of literary merit and genuine 
piety. Their mild, amiable, and lady-like deportment make 
them beloved by all who are sufficiently acquainted with to ap- 
preciate them. Some one writes : " It seems to me that woman, 
by her peculiar constitution, is better qualified to teach religion 
than by any merely intellectual discipline." Women are more 
susceptible to religious impressions than men. Two thirds of the 
communicants of our churches are of that sex. The Quakers, 
Shakers, and Methodists, we think, are the only denominations in 
which women speak in religious meetings. The founder of the 
Shakers was a woman— Ann Lee — who established her faith in 
1776. 

22. Proof Readers. The reading of proof has become a 
regular branch of business. Many of the large houses in cities 
where publishing is done, employ persons expressly for this pur- 
pose. We think proof reading opens a charming prospect to the 
employment of cultivated women. Girls could just as well be 
trained to read manuscripts aloud, for proof readers to correct 
their first sheets by, as boys. A proprietor of one of the largest 
publishing houses in this country kindly furnished us a reply to 
the question, what are the duties of a proof reader, and are ladies 
ever so employed ? Hoping it will not be considered a breach of 
courtesy to use the reply, we give it in the words of the writer : 
" Proof reading consists in the reading of proofs, marking the 
errors, and making the work typographically correct. A good 
proof reader ought to be a practical printer, as there are a thou- 
sand minute details which one can hardly learn except by daily 
experience at the composing case and imposing stone. In ad- 
dition to this he should have more or less knowledge of various 






PROOF READERS PUBLISHERS. 31 

languages, ancient and modern, and be well informed in history, 
art, and science. Proof reading is considered the best situation 
in a printing office ; and the most intelligent printers usually gain 
and hold these situations. We know of no case in which this 
duty is performed by a woman ; the cases must be rare indeed in 
which one has had an opportunity to qualify her for performing 
its duties. Moreover, it is a position the duties of which must 
be performed in the printing office." It is true that proof read- 
ing must be done in the printing establishment ; but separate 
rooms, we believe, are always provided for proof readers. So 
ladies need not be frightened by supposing they must do their 
reading in the composition room. One of the firm of the Boston 
Stereotype Foundry writes : " We employ but three young ladies 
to read proof, and pay from $3 to $5 per week. They are 
Americans, and work nine hours. At one time we employed 
women in the type-setting department, who received two thirds 
of the price paid to men. Women are paid less than men because 
they are women, and because plenty can be found. Women 
possessing a good English education can learn in two months — if 
apt, become expert. They commence at $3, and finally get $5. 
The prospect of employment is good for a few. Occasionally 
there is a dull time, which affords opportunity for a little sewing, 
&c. Unless very dull, the occupant retains her position and wages. 
Good workmen consider women an innovation. To sum up the 
whole matter in a few words, women (barring the heavy work) can 
perform the labor appertaining to proofreading and type setting as 
well as men." A lady told me that one of her daughters assists 
her father with his newspaper. She reads the proof, looks up 
articles he wants, helps select matter for the paper, and translates 
French stories for his paper. Her services are worth to him 
from $500 to $600 a year. On visiting the Bible House, I learn- 
ed that a lady is there employed as proof reader. She corrects 
both in English and German. Four or five male proof readers are 
employed, but she is the only lady. She gets $5 or $6 a week. The 
principal proof reader gets $12 a week. " Accuracy, quickness of 
eye, thorough knowledge of orthography, grammar, and punctuation, 
with a knowledge of languages, and a vast deal of learning and gene- 
ral intelligence, are necessary for a proof reader. An intuitive per- 
ception, arising from this cultivation, enables one to detect errors 
immediately, often without knowing how and why." 

23. Publishers. We find in the census report of Great 
Britain, 923 women reported as booksellers and publishers. What 
the number of publishers alone is we cannot tell, nor do we know 
whether any of them conduct the business on their own responsi- 
bility, or whether they are widows, and have men to conduct the 



32 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

business for them. "We know of two large publishing houses in 
New York that pay 10 cents on the dollar to an author for the 
manuscript of any book they see proper to publish ; that is, for a 
book they will sell at retail for $1, and at wholesale for 60 cents, 
the author receives 10 cents, which gives the publisher 50 cents 
for getting up the book and running the risk of selling it. If the 
author incurs the expenses of getting the book up, they may allow 15 
cents. They will pay no larger a percentage for any subsequent 
edition than for the first. But they will not undertake a book 
unless they think they can make money out of it. The same 
book might be printed and stereotype plates cast at 85 cents a 
volume. The author could then sell it for 65 cents a copy to the 
book merchants, and they would sell it at 90 cents a volume. 
After the first edition of one thousand, the author could probably 
get it printed at 40 cents on the volume less. If the book takes, 
the merchant may allow the author twelve to fifteen per cent. 
Some publishers purchase the copyrights of books they think 
may succeed, paying a specified sum, as agreed on with the author. 
Publishers calculate to have two out of every three books fail that 
are brought into market. Some publishers sell for authors on com- 
mission. The authors get up their own books, and the publisher 
sells, receiving forty per cent, from the retail price, He sells to 
the trade at a discount of from twenty-five to thirty-three per 
cent., according to amount and distance. The average discount 
would be thirty per cent. This leaves the publisher ten per cent, 
to transact all the business, advertise, &c. From the first edition 
the publisher will not be likely to derive any profit; but if the 
book takes, the publisher will make a handsome profit from the 
subsequent editions. 

24. Readers to the Working Classes. In China, 
at almost every store where cups of tea are sold, a number of men 
make it a business to read to those that come in to buy or drink 
tea. A gratuity is bestowed by such as feel disposed. The work- 
ing classes that are not able to read and buy books, are thereby 
enabled to have the benefit of those that can. Now we do not 
see why the same principle may not be carried out in this coun- 
try. Shakspearian readings, it is true, have been popular and 
fashionable for a few years. We have seen it stated that " seven 
of Fanny Kemble Butler's recent Shakspearian readings in New 
York city netted the fine sum of $6,000." Beside, lectures 
have been delivered and poems recited, mostly of the readers' 
composition. Now might not competent ladies make it useful to 
the working classes of their own sex, or even both sexes, to spend 
an evening, occasionally, in reading to them ? Charging a small 
entrance fee, if there is a good attendance, would support the 



REPORTERS. 66 

reader, and enlighten the audience. It would be better if the 
poor, hard-working classes had more elevating and refining amuse- 
ments. We know of none better calculated to improve while it 
entertains than reading. Might it not be done in saloons ? — prop- 
erly qualified men in the gentlemen's department, and properly 
qualified women in the ladies' department. In our large cities, 
where time is so precious, many a lady, we doubt not, would give 
an additional sixpence to have a book she carries with her or the 
papers of the day read aloud while she eats her lunch. The 
only difficulty is, the prices paid would scarcely justify one suffi- 
ciently qualified for the undertaking. 

25. Reporters. This is rather a new arena for the exer- 
cise of female talent. A reporter must be a close observer of 
matters and things in general that pertain to individual or public 
affairs. A verbal or written account is furnished to the publica- 
tion in which the reporter is interested. A reporter attends pub- 
lic assemblies of any kind, and writes down or stenographizes the 
proceedings of said assembly. In a city, places of amusement, 
lectures, political and church meetings, form subjects of interest 
to a newspaper reporter. Noting the proceedings of legislative 
and other legal assemblies forms the most regular and reliable 
employment. In London, there are seven publications that em- 
ploy from ten to eighteen reporters each, during the meetings of 
Parliament. Two from each paper are always in attendance — 
one in the gallery of the House of Lords, and another in the 
gallery of the House of Commons. A reporter seldom remains 
more than two or three hours. His place is taken by another, 
while he writes out his notes and prepares them for the press. 
The reporters are well remunerated, and give very faithful reports. 
In the United States, the subscription price of even the very best 
papers, and their comparatively limited circulation, will not jus- 
tify so great an expense for the reporter's department. Yet 
most good papers have one or two reporters. Not long since, a 
lady stenographer received $1,000 damages from a railroad com- 
pany, for an accident that occurred on the car, which unfitted 
her for her calling, as ifc deprived her of the forefinger on her 
right hand. A lady reporter, in Boston, writes me : " The art 
of reporting needs constant drilling, like music, dancing, &c. 
Few women have the education and nerve for professional report- 
ing." A lady teacher of phonography writes : " A person of 
common capacity could learn phonography in from four to six 
months, studying three hours per day ; but to practise for report- 
ing is quite another thing : that depends upon the unremitting 
industry of a person. I know of but two ladies whose business is 
reporting. It is hard work, but pays well." This lady also 
2* 



3i THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN, 

states that her terms of tuition are seventy-five cents per lesson 
of one hour. " Phonographers generally receive from ten to 
twenty dollars an hour ; and it takes about five or six hours to 
write out what may be spoken in an hour, if done by one person. 
With an amanuensis, it takes about four hours of writing to one 
of speaking.' ' Several ladies are acting in Ohio and Michigan as 
phonographic reporters. Mr. James T B Brady, in a public speech 
in New York, said : " Without disparagement to his friends who 
were here engaged in catching the extemporized words of the 
speaker, he really would be happy to see the day when women, 
who had the capacity, should be engaged in making reports." 
" Among the American Indians, the women, being present at 
councils, preserve in their memories the report of what passes, 
and repeat it to their children. They have traditions of treaties 
a hundred years back, which, when compared with our writings, 
are always exact." A telegraphic reporter told me a first-class 
reporter can earn from twenty-five to thirty dollars for three or 
four hours' labor. It requires a knowledge of stenography, of 
which there are several teachers in New York, and which can be 
learned in a short time. Some reporters are paid by the week • 
and some by the page of foolscap, which is considered, I think, 
as counting eighty words. Mr. B., a reporter of New York, had 
a sister in Washington with him, ten years ago, who attended the 
sittings of Congress, and took notes, and wrote them out fully. 
Her brother then revised and sent them to the press. Another 
lady attempted it for the Tribune, but was ridiculed, and very 
foolishly gave it up. I was told that Mrs. W. ? wife of a reporter 
for the Tribune, took notes of Dr. Chapin's sermon on Thanksgiv- 
ing day, and made a report for the Tribune, with which the read- 
ers of the paper were well satisfied. The reply of Mr. Webster 
to Mr. Hayne was saved by Mrs. Gales, the wife of one of the 
Congressional reporters, by writing out her husband's short-hand 
notes, which he for the lack of time' found it impossible to do. 
Otherwise that remarkable speech of an eminent orator would 
have been lost. Mr. L. remarked to me : " A reporter in New 
York has to move and write with railroad speed. Everything 
needs to be done with a rush ; and so dense are crowds, that a 
woman would have to lay aside hoops to make her way." 

26. Reviewers. A reviewer of new books should be a rapid 
reader and of quick understanding. A reviewer should also be a 
person of judgment. The vast number of books now published 
might afford employment, and a good compensation, we suppose, to 
those so engaged. But too often publishers use a moneyed influ- 
ence in giving a false reputation to their publications. Frequently 
the editors of magazines and newspapers are their own reviewers. 



REVIEWERS TEACHERS. 35 

We heartily wish that reviewers would endeavor to check the cir- 
culation of some of the light literature of the day. We refer not 
so much to that which is vapid — unsubstantial — wanting stamina 
— as that which is impure — immoral. Much is of a kind to 
open the floodgates of vice and crime. Stories cast in the 
old-fashioned mould of hair-breadth escapes, marvellous incidents, 
and impossible events, are less popular than formerly. No doubt 
much reading is done as a recreation — to forget one's self — to 
banish care — to unbend from severe study : let such reading at 
least be pure and chaste. Books undoubtedly exercise a great 
influence over the disposition, taste, and character ; and review- 
ers have it much in their power to direct the general taste for 
books. They can do much toward forming a high and correct 
literary tone in society. The number of those who devote them- 
selves to the review of new books in England is small — in the 
United States, still smaller. How they are paid I am unable to 
learn. 

27. Teachers. Teaching, in its various branches, would 
form a large volume ; but we will endeavor to take as general, 
yet comprehensive, a view of the subject as our limits will permit. 
The instruction of youth has ever been an honorable and useful 
calling : in an enlightened and refined community an institution 
of the first class always stands high. The influence of a teacher 
over her pupils is almost unbounded. Pupils watch the looks and 
actions of their teachers with a closeness of observation surpris- 
ing to those unaccustomed to children. A teacher should strive 
to be consistent, for any palpable inconsistency will greatly lessen 
the respect of scholars. There are many systems of teaching; 
many plans ; many theories. Much may be learned from visiting 
schools, and selecting, for one's own use, such improvements as 
suggest themselves. But the most valuable assistant in teaching 
is a thorough and extensive knowledge of mental and moral 
philosophy. They bear directly on the subject. They will prove 
the best guides, if penetration and judgment, patience and perse- 
verance are used in the application. There are laws governing 
mind just as there are laws governing matter. Learn the opin- 
ions and wishes of parents as far as possible, but always act inde- 
pendently. Never permit yourself to be trammelled by them. 
The European method of giving instruction is by lectures. The 
plan is used in the professional schools of our country, and to 
some extent in our colleges, but in our seminaries, academies, and 
high schools the method is seldom practised. The inability of a 
hearer to apply to a lecturer, in case the subject is not understood, 
or the meaning of the lecturer not rightly apprehended, renders 
the method as a general thing objectionable to the young and in- 



36 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

experienced. Where students are instructed by lectures, a 
thorough examination on the lectures should be made the day 
after, and an explanation given if any parts are not rightly un- 
derstood. One difficulty with a lecturer to the young is likely 
to be in gaining their entire attention, and presenting ideas to 
them in a clear, forcible manner. In the majority of girls' schools 
no oral instruction is given. Recitations are heard from text 
books, and frequently the pupils are unable to understand what 
they, parrot-like, recite in class. We think a combination of the 
two plans mentioned is best ; that is, for the teacher to deliver lec- 
tures on some subjects, and hear recitations from text books on 
others. The more oral instruction given by a competent in- 
structor the better. A teacher needs ability to command order, 
to promote discipline, and work systematically. A teacher should 
endeavor to produce harmony and a proper balance among the 
mental faculties, while they are being expanded. No unnatural 
and undue prominence should be given to any one of the faculties. 
Too many exercise the memory only. Those studies that will be 
most serviceable to a pupil should be pursued. Religious prin- 
ciples, common sense, good health, and a uniformly cheerful dis- 
position are necessary to make a good teacher. A teacher should 
well understand the springs of human action. Add to these, abil- 
ity to discriminate, perfect command of temper, unwearied per- 
severance, patience that never flags, and tact for imparting knowl- 
edge, and you have the desiderata for a most excellent teacher. 
If there is any office in life that calls for the exercise of every 
virtue, it is that of a teacher. It is the most responsible office in 
life except that of parent. Teaching is a vocation peculiarly 
fitted to women, and will ever be open to women of superior 
talents and extensive attainments. In worth and dignity it is 
inferior to none of the professions of men. It is finally taking 
its place among the learned professions. Female education has 
been too superficial. A more thorough and extensive course is 
needed in most of our schools. Woman must be taught to think 
for herself, and to act for herself. She needs to depend more on 
her own abilities- — requires more self-reliance. Miss Beecher 
maintains that there is no defect in temper, habits, manners, or in 
any intellectual and moral development, which cannot be reme- 
died. There are said to be more than 2,000,000 of children 
in our land out of school, and requiring 100,000 teachers to sup- 
ply them. We would not give the impression that if 100,000 
ladies were to prepare themselves to teach, they would find 
100,000 places awaiting them. No ; we believe the supply now 
fully meets the demand ; and we are sorry to see the impression 
being so often given by editors and others, that teachers are needed 



TEACHERS. 37 

and in demand ; because we think many ladies of limited means 
are thereby induced to spend what little they have in preparing 
themselves to be teachers; and when they are qualified, ten 
chances to one, if they get a school, it is only for three months out 
of the twelve, and that not regularly. A precarious subsistence 
is obtained, and, to those without homes, certainly a most unrelia- 
ble one. We love to see ladies educated, and would gladly see 
them all qualified to teach ; but we do not like to see inducements 
thrown out to qualify themselves, under the impression that there 
are hundreds of places vacant only because they cannot obtain 
teachers. There is no employment more uncertain than that of a 
teacher. Many causes tend to produce this. AmoDg them are 
dissatisfaction on the part of teacher or people, low wages, the 
fluctuating condition of country schools at different seasons of the 
year, a large mass of people not knowing the advantages of an 
education, and the want of endowed institutions of learning. If 
a lady has sufficient capital to establish herself permanently as a 
teacher, she will be far more likely to succeed. As new places 
are settled and population advances there will no doubt be open- 
ings, but they will require teachers willing to endure the hard- 
ships and privations incident to a new country. Some lady 
teachers might get employment if they would go to the country, 
but the variety and excitement of the city they are not willing to 
relinquish. An active life is happiest, and none, if well filled, 
affords more constant employment than that of a teacher. Even- 
ing schools are established in most of our large cities, for the ac- 
commodation of those that labor through the day. In New York 
these schools are in session two hours, and a teacher receives one 
dollar an evening. Some lady teachers are employed in schools 
for the blind and for the deaf and dumb. In Germany, teachers 
are treated with a degree of respect and delicacy that should 
serve as a model to other countries. The acquisition of knowl- 
edge has long been too mechanical an operation. Girls are ex- 
pected to receive as undoubted truths all they meet with in their 
school books. They are not taught to pause and consider if 
statements are grounded on certain or uncertain premises. They 
are not taught to exercise their own thoughts and judgment. 
School agencies in the large cities of the North are establishing 
branches in the South and West. Where there is no established 
organization of this kind, families and neighborhoods are often 
at a loss how to obtain a governess or teacher, while a teacher 
is equally at a loss to know of such situations as she desires. 
There is considerable difference in the character and qualifications 
of the teachers sent out by the different agencies of New York. 
Connected with these agencies might be a means of communica- 



38 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

tion for obtaining amanuenses, copyists, and translators. Few 
parents are willing to intrust their children to those who are not 
trained for their business. The establishment of schools for the 
preparation of teachers is one of the great inventions of the age. 
There is one in almost every State. There was, and probably still 
is, an educational association, that centres in New York city, 
which has for its object the free instruction of a limited number 
of young ladies desirous of preparing themselves for teachers. 
One of the institutions is in Dubuque, Iowa ; the other in 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The principal of the Normal School, 
New York, receives 8600 a year, and he does not hear a single 
recitation. He spends five hours in the room every Saturday, 
which, for all the year of 48 weeks,' equals 240 hours — nearly $3 
an hour, merely for the light of his countenance. The number 
of governesses in England is very large. Their duties are more 
severe and their remuneration less than in any other country. 
In the United States, governesses receive higher salaries in the 
Southern than the Northern States, and are treated more like 
members of the family. The salaries of teachers are also higher, 
but it costs more to live in the South. One way in which so 
many men get situations as teachers to the exclusion of females, 
" may be attributed, in a degree, to favoritism of Odd Fellows' 
and other social and political bonds." As time advances, more 
attention will be given by the ladies to special branches of edu- 
cation. There will be professors of mathematics, languages, &c., 
just as there are in male institutions. Each one will cultivate 
most highly a knowledge of that science to which her talents and 
wishes incline. In the public schools of New York, there are 
thirty-nine gentlemen conducting the male departments, who 
receive a salary of $1,500 per year; while, of the lady principals 
of the female departments, there are only ten getting a salary of 
$800, the highest salary paid a lady in the public schools of New 
York. There are said to be 1,183 female teachers in New York 
city. In Louisville, Ky., the gentleman principals of the gram- 
mar schools receive a salary of 81,000 a year, the lady principals 
$650. In the male and female high schools, the principals 
receive $1,600 a year. The lady preceptress in the female high 
school has a salary of $900. The lady who teaches mathematics 
in the Female Presbyterian College of Louisville receives a salary 
of $900. In Chicago, the maximum salary of female teachers is 
$400 a year. In the Cleveland Female Seminary, in 1854, the 
lady teacher of rhetoric and English literature received a salary 
of $500 and board ; of English branches, $500 and board ; of 
history, $500 and board ; of mathematics, $500 and board. We 
have seen it stated that female teachers are growing scarce in 



TEACHERS OF BOOKKEEPING. 39 

Maine, because the wages are so low. " At the New York Cen- 
tral College for students of both sexes, there is one female pro- 
fessor in the faculty, and she receives the same salary as the 
other members, and has the same voice." It is a manual labor 
school, where the same justice is not exercised in regard to the 
pupils, as the " male students get eight cents per hour for labor, 
females but four cents an hour." In the twelfth ward of New 
York city, the subject of paying lady teachers the same salaries 
as those of the other sex was agitated last winter : the result I 
did not hear. Higher prices are paid to lady teachers in Bos- 
ton than any other city of the United States, except the cities of 
California, where ladies conducting the same branches as gentle- 
men receive as good salaries. The majority of teachers in San 
Francisco are ladies. In the United States there are 150,000 
teachers hi the public schools, and 4,000,000 scholars. u There 
is one scholar for every five free persons ; in Great Britain there 
is one scholar to every eight persons ; in France, one to every ten 
persons." According to an estimate made by Kev. T. W. 
Higginson, there are in fourteen of the United States, in all 
schools, both public and private, 152,339 male teachers, and 
162,687 female teachers. In the New England States, according 
to his estimate, there are 45,619 male teachers, and 87,645 
female teachers. In the Western States, settled mostly by New 
Englanders, we find the proportion of lady teachers greatest. 
We hope the number of lady teachers may increase in the differ- 
ent States in proportion to the increase of the population. In 
Brooklyn, L. I., there is a female seminary endowed by Mrs. 
Packer, which usually, we believe, has an attendance of between 
300 and 400 pupils. " Matthew Vassar, Esq., of Poughkeepsie, 
it is said, has devoted a sum which will soon amount to $400,000 
to the endowment of a college for girls in that city. He hopes 
to make it a rival of Yale, Brown, and Harvard. It is not to be 
free, but the tuition rates will be very low. In the plan pro- 
vision is made for a library, cabinets, apparatus, galleries of art, 
botanical gardens, and the like. If well carried out, this institu- 
tion may be a lasting monument to the wisdom and benevo- 
lence of Mr. Vassar." 

28. Teachers of Bookkeeping. In the catalogue of 
Comer's Commercial College, Boston, we find the following state- 
ment : u As an inducement to ladies to prepare themselves for 
mercantile employments, a discount of twenty per cent, from the 
terms for gentlemen is made, although the course of instruction is 
precisely the same." Twelve free scholarships have been founded 
in the institution for deserving cases of either sex. With all 



40 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

large commercial schools is now connected a separate depart- 
ment for ladies ; and efforts are made by the principals to obtain 
situations for their pupils as they leave school. A letter from 
Misses Mclntire and Kidder, Boston, states : " We have been 
engaged in preparing ladies for bookkeepers, saleswomen, &c, for 
the past ten years. It was at first difficult for ladies to obtain 
such situations ; but as those who did succeed gave entire satis- 
faction, others were induced to give them a trial ; and now they 
are very generally employed in our retail stores, at prices vary- 
ing from four to eight dollars per week, and a few at a still 
higher salary. The time required for a person who has received 
a common English education, is from six weeks to three months. 
The terms for the complete course in bookkeeping, which em- 
braces improvement in writing, with rapid methods of calculat- 
ing interest and averaging accounts, are $14 ; and for bookkeeping 
only, $12; and three months 1 time is allowed. The chances 
for obtaining employment are very favorable, as more situations 
are opened to them every year. Each student is instructed 
separately and assistance rendered in obtaining employment. 
Bookkeepers are usually employed ten hours a day. The em- 
ployment is not so unhealthy as needlework. Women are su- 
perior to men in faithfulness in the performance of duties." The 
principal of a mercantile college in Brooklyn says he thinks 
u many ladies might obtain employment as bookkeepers, if they 
would only properly qualify themselves for the duties. He had 
six or seven lady pupils that are now employed as bookkeepers 
in New York. Their compensation depends on their abilities and 
the amount of labor they have to perform. They are not so 
well paid as male bookkeepers. Much depends on the kind of 
friends a lady has to secure her a place. It is the same case 
with a young man. If he acquires a reputation for integrity and 
faithfulness, he may get even as much as $2,500 ; while one more 
obscure and unknown may be as competent, but not able to com- 
mand more than one third as much. So, one may have to work 
but a few hours ; another, from eight in the morning until twelve 
at night. Some have a great deal to do in some seasons, and 
but little in others ; while some are kept nearly equally busy all 
the year." This gentleman charges $10 for instruction. Mr. 
D., who teaches writing, bookkeeping, and arithmetic, in New 
York, gives private instruction to ladies at his rooms. They are 
comfortably fitted up. He charges for bookkeeping, practical 
course of twenty lessons, $15 ; unlimited course, $25 ; — arith- 
metic, commercial course of twenty lessons, $10 ; of sixty les- 
sons, $20. His charges for all branches required to prepare 
pupils practically for business are, for one month, two or three 



TEACHEKS OF DRAWING AND PAINTING. 41 

hours per day, $15; three months, $30; for twenty lessors in 
writing, public room, $10 ; private room, $15. Mr. B., of the 
firm of B. S. & Co., says a person of good abilities could learn 
bookkeeping in one month, by spending most of the day at it. 
His price for ladies is $25. It entitles them to an attendance at 
one of their branch schools, of which there are eight in the 
Northern and Western cities. They endeavor to secure places for 
those who learn bookkeeping with them. They also assist their 
pupils to open books when they have obtained situations. Mil- 
linery establishments, trimming and fancy stores, &c, are the 
kind that mostly employ women as bookkeepers. Many wives of 
business men learn bookkeeping, that they may keep their, hus- 
bands' books. 

29. Teachers of Gymnastics and Dancing. Dan- 
cing, calisthenics, and gymnastics furnish excellent exercise for 
young people, and in many boarding and day schools for young 
ladies gymnastics are now taught. A lady teacher of calisthenics 
and gymnastics told me that in winter a fire is kept in the dress- 
ing room, and in very cold weather the practising room is 
warmed a little. Gymnastics are performed with apparatus. 
Calisthenics are arm exercises. The terms of this teacher are $6 
for one month, $15 for three months, and $20 for six months' 
tuition. In New York and Philadelphia there are schools where 
instruction is given to girls as well as boys in gymnastic exer- 
cises. At one gymnasium in New York the terms are $16 a 
year for tuition, $10 for six months, and $7 for three months. 
At a ladies' gymnasium in Brooklyn, I was told by the instruc- 
tress that her prices for tuition are $4 a quarter in summer, giv- 
ing three lessons a week. A physician prescribes the kind and 
amount of exercise necessary. 

30. Teachers of Drawing and Painting. There 
is scarcely any branch of mechanical labor in which a knowledge 
of drawing is not an advantage. Correct drawing is essential to 
the success of an artist ; but coloring is something very difficult 
and desirable, particularly the coloring of the flesh. It is indis- 
pensable to the portrait painter. A lady artist of some note 
told me that artists do not ground themselves in drawing as they 
should ; that drawing tells almost the whole story of a picture : 
coloring only gives beauty and adds strength. She thinks there 
are many openings in the South and West for first-class teachers 
of drawing and painting. Miss G. received a salary of $800, as 
teacher of painting in the School of Arts in Baltimore. It is 
folly for any one to devote herself to art as a career, unless she 
has some genius and a fondness for it. Mrs. H., of Boston, the 
wife of the sculptor, has supported her family by painting and 



42 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

giving instruction in the art. Teachers in oil painting are well 
compensated, if they have pupils enough to occupy all their 
time. Prices vary in cities from fifty cents a lesson of one hour 
to two dollars. Art classes have been formed, both in New 
York and Philadelphia. Some artists receive pupils, but the 
time required for instruction renders it objectionable to most. 
Miss G-. charges $15 a quarter of twenty-four lessons, two hours 
each. In ordinary times, she gives but one hour's instruction at 
a lesson. Miss J. charges $10 dollars for instruction in oriental 
painting. Mrs. C. was profitably engaged, in Providence, in 
teaching drawing and taking crayon portraits. One lady, who 
taught for several years with success, charged fifty cents a lesson, 
the pupils attending at her room. Those working in crayon in 
the New York school draw almost entirely from casts ; those in 
the Philadelphia school, from plates. There is now a life school 
in New York, where instruction is given at $20 per quarter of 
eleven weeks — two lessons a week. For instruction in drawing 
from plates, $12 per quarter of eleven weeks. In some of our 
public schools, drawing is taught free of expense to the scholars. 

31. Teachers of Fancy Work. The accomplishments 
of women are useful in their times and places. Music and draw- 
ing are elegant accomplishments, the earliest as well as the most 
universal pastimes known. Those teachers of accomplishments 
that have acquired a reputation can command in a city a high 
price. At Madame D.'s, crochet work and embroidery are taught 
at 25 cents a lesson of one hour. Misses H., Philadelphia, give 
five lessons in leather work for $6, and charge, for giving instruc- 
tion in wax fruit and flowers, paper and rice paper flowers, &c, 
$1 a lesson; in embroidery in silk, gold bullion, &c, $15 for 
twenty lessons — the same for hair flowers and bead work; for the 
arrangement of shells with mosses and grasses, $1 a lesson. Ma- 
dame N., who teaches crochet work and fancy knitting, charges 
50 cents an hour. One stitch can be learned by a quick person 
in an hour. She thinks there is plenty of that kind of work to 
supply all and even more hands than are so occupied. She em- 
ploys a number, and pays by the piece. They work at home, and 
can earn from $3 to $4 a week. 

32. Teachers of Horsemanship. The prices of the 
riding school, New York, attended by the most aristocratic classes, 
are: 16 lessons, $20; 10 lessons, $15; 5 lessons, $8; single les- 
sons, $2 ; road lesson, one pupil, $5 ; two or more pupils, each 
S3. For exercise riding, single ride, one hour, $1.50; single 
ride, half hour, $1. After taking 16 or more lessons, the prices are 
somewhat reduced. At another riding school in New York, the 
terms are : 20 lessons for gentlemen, $25 ; 20 lessons for ladies, 



TEACHERS OF INFANT SCHOOLS. 43 

$20; 10 lessons for gentlemen, $15 ; 10 lessons for ladies, $12; 
single lessons, $2. The rules are very good, and laid down in 
the circulars. At another riding school in New York the prices 
are: $20 for 20 lessons, $12 for 10 lessons, $7 for 5 lessons; 
single lessons, $1.50; road lessons, one person, $5; road lessons, 
three or more, each $3 ; 20 exercise rides for $15 ; evening rides 
for $1; road rides, 10 for $8; single, $1 ; road ride to a lady, 
$2.50. The regulations are very good. The expenses for keep- 
ing up a riding school are considerable ; so it may not prove as 
profitable as the prices would seem to indicate. 

33. Teachers of Xftfant Schools. Teaching is inter- 
esting to those that love children. But I would say, let not 
those without patience and tenderness, or those whose feelings 
can in an hour change from the boiling to the freezing point, at- 
tempt to teach young children. In ordinary schools, young chil- 
dren are liable to be either cramped or stunted. If children 
must be placed at school early, let it be where they can exercise 
their little bodies frequently, and not be confined in school long 
at a time. To accomplish this, we think the infant school the most 
efficient. Lord Brougham gives it as his opinion that a child 
learns more the first eighteen months of its life than at any other 
period ; and that it settles, in fact, at this early age, its mental 
capacity and future well-being. Mr. Babbington fixes the period 
of the first nine years as the seedtime of life. Some object to infant 
schools, on the ground that they divert the mind, and unfit it for 
continued and concentrated thought in after life. But we cannot 
think so, unless the course is pursued an unreasonable length of 
time. The first two years of a child's schooling may be passed 
profitably in an infant school ; at any rate, if the child enters as 
early as six years of age. Indeed, we think the variety embodied 
in the infant-school system is one of its most pleasing and useful 
features. The minds of children cannot rest long on any one 
subject, any more than their bodies can retain the same posture 
long at a time. It stagnates thought, prevents boldness of spirit, 
and stunts the growth of a young child to sit quiet hour after 
hour. Some mothers send their children early to school to have 
them out of their way. Such children could be more pleasantly 
and more efficiently taught in an infant school than in any other. 
Yet, we are rather inclined to the opinion that a child should be 
taught the alphabet at home. Gentle but firm treatment is neces- 
sary for children, who need much sympathy and affection ; and 
it therefore requires the greatest patience on the part of a teacher, 
in order to conduct an infant school successfully. Infant schools 
are scarce in the United States ; but still they exist in some 
parts of New England. There was an infant school in Troy, some 



44: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

time ago (and perhaps it is still in existence), in connection with 
one of the public schools. The infant-school system has been 
partially adopted in some of the public schools of our Western 
cities ; and the same system applied to Sabbath schools has been 
extensively and happily carried into effect, both in the South and 
West. There are several infant Sabbath schools, of which we 
know, numbering considerably over one hundred children. These 
schools are usually conducted by ladies. The exercises are varied, 
as in day schools, and consist generally of chanting responses, 
catechism, memorizing from cards, telling Bible stories, lecturing, 
explaining pictures, singing, &c. This order of exercises, sus- 
tained in a lively manner, cannot fail to interest children, and 
make the school room for them a happy and longed-for place. 
Nature itself points out the course to be pursued in the educa- 
tion of a child : first, physical training ; second, moral training ; 
and third, mental training. Mind and body are so closely united 
that an injury to one is resented by the other. One is placed as 
a protector to the other, and will not permit injury to its com- 
panion with impunity. 

34. Teachers of Languages. A knowledge of Latin 
is desirable for ladies that expect to devote much time to books. 
The study of it is fine discipline for the mind. The German and 
French are studied by many ladies : the French more for the 
purposes of light literature and conversation ; the German by those 
that wish to dive into metaphysics. These languages are, both, 
useful to ladies engaged in stores : the French mostly in New 
York city and in the South; the German more at the North and 
West. In Italy, at different times from the fifteenth to the nine- 
teenth century, learned women occupied chairs in the universities, 
as professors of music, drawing, philosophy, mathematics, and the 
languages, both ancient and modern. The author of " Women 
and Work" says: "Women should teach languages and oratory. 
Aspasia taught rhetoric to Socrates. The voice of woman .is 
more penetrating, distinct, delicate, and correct in delivering 
sounds than that of man, fitting her to teach both languages and 
oratory better." The prices paid for private instruction in the 
languages are higher than when received in a class, and run from 
25 cents an hour to $1. A language is best taught by a native 
of the country in which said language is spoken. 

35. Teachers of Music. Yocal music is taught in most 
of our schools, and is required to be taught in the public schools 
of Germany and Prussia. In Germany, instrumental music is 
also taught free of charge. It is not uncommon to see a German 
mechanic performing on the piano. Instrumental music is prob- 
ably the most expensive accomplishment attending the education 



TRANSLATORS. 45 

of a young lady. Music is more generally cultivated in the 
United States than any other accomplishment. It is better ap- 
preciated by the mass, and, consequently, becomes more ingrafted 
in the national element. In a few years our musicians will prob- 
ably equal the most celebrated of Europe. A skilful musician 
need never suffer in America. If competent to give instruction 
in music, there will be opportunities to do so in our cities. Most 
seminaries require one teacher of music, and often two or more. 

36. Teachers of Navigation. " One of the best and 
most popular teachers of navigation and nautical mathematics 
and astronomy in England is a lady, Mrs. Janet Taylor. Her 
classes are celebrated, and numerously attended by men who have 
been at sea as well as by youths preparing for the merchant 
service." Not long since, she received a gold medal and a pre- 
mium of £50 annually from the British Government. 

37. Teachers of Swimming. There is a swimming 
school in Paris, containing as pupils ladies of all stations in life. 
Swimming schools for both sexes have been established in New 
York. In the one for ladies and girls instruction is given by 
one of their own sex, and a charge made of 25 cents a lesson. 
From the New York Observer we copy an article : " A few 
years ago, a gentleman well known in the philanthropic world 
established a school in New Jersey, not far from New York, with 
the intention of making physical training a prominent part of his 
educational system. He began with his own children and a few 
others. The school has gradually grown until it numbers eighty 
pupils, both boys and girls. Every pupil at this school is a gym- 
nast ; every one can row a boat ; and every one, down to the 
smallest girl, can swim. The boys and girls are formed into sep- 
arate boat clubs, seven to each club, rowing six oars, with the 
seventh for coxswain. So they row races whenever the weather 
permits, and they do not mind a little rough weather. Every 
clay, too, during the warm season, they all have a swim. The 
boys swim by themselves ; and the girls, in suitable bathing dresses, 
go elsewhere, with a teacher. One year of such training and 
exercises will lay up stamina for a lifetime." A school has been 
commenced in New York for teaching swimming out of the water, 
by machinery. The prices are 25 cents a lesson in a class, and 
$1 a lesson for private instruction. 

38. Translators. Translations published in the United 
States are mostly made in England. Some languages are suscep- 
tible of a much more correct and graceful translation than others. 
It requires study to get the exact meaning of some authors, and 
taste and genius to convey that meaning. A literal interpreta- 
tion will not always convey the meaning of an author as well as 



4:6 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

a looser translation getting more the spirit of the original. A 
person should have general information on the subject to be 
treated, A translator of history must be a good historian. It 
requires time to establish a reputation as a translator, but even a 
translator's career must have a beginning. Dr. G., who has 
charge of the editorial department of one of the most extensively 
circulated magazines in the United States, says translations from 
French and German are not so well liked in magazines as 
original matter, and anything to be translated for his magazine 
he does as a recreation from more serious duties. Owing to the 
international copyright law of England and France, a French au- 
thor will send his manuscript over to England and have it rendered, 
securing the right to the translation. The translation often 
makes its appearance very nearly as soon as the original. Most 
of the valuable works in French have been translated. Mr. W. 
told me, however, that there are some scientific French works that 
might be rendered into English, and some on mechanics; but it 
would require some one acquainted with the subject, on account of 
the technical terms. Dr. G. thinks the chances a thousand against 
one that an individual could find constant employment translating. 
He has frequent applications from translators for work in that 
line. So we have reason to think translating is a very precarious 
occupation. . The best way is to find some French book that will 
be popular in America, and translate it, and offer it to a pub- 
lisher. Some translators look over catalogues of foreign books 
and examine such as they think will be likely to please. They 
take it to the publisher, who, if he thinks it will be available, 
gives the individual the task, if they can settle on satisfactory 
terms. A lady, who translates considerably, told me that she 
receives $5 a page for a finished translation from the French for 
magazines. Books are generally done for so much, according to 
the contract of the parties. The price charged for verbal trans- 
lation would doubtless depend on the amount of time consumed; 
but for a written translation, the charge would be made by the 
page or volume. In most of the Government departments trans- 
lators are employed, and their salaries are no doubt good. 
Interpreters are also employed in some of the courts, but they 
usually unite their occupation with that of copyist. In some 
private establishments interpreters are employed. Where there 
is sufficient business to occupy all the time of a lady, she would 
doubtless find her services as an interpreter lucrative. 



ACTKESSES. 47 



AETISTIC PITESUITS, AND EMPLOYMENTS 
CONNECTED WITH THE FINE AETS. 

39. Actresses. The circumstances under which a play- 
actor's life are seen are calculated to please the young and sus- 
ceptible. They put a false estimate on the pleasures it affords. 
They are apt to forget that the moments in which performers ap- 
pear on the stage all sparkling as the diamond sands and crystal 
pebbles of a brook, are the principal, perhaps the only bright 
ones of their lives. Many a sad spirit, many a broken heart is 
concealed under the glittering tinsel. We are not among those 
who denounce the theatre as a school of vice and infamy — nor 
could we conscientiously laud it as a school of virtue. We think 
the influence and effects depend very greatly upon the character 
of the plays; much, too, depends upon the individuals of the 
audience. There is no amusement that may not suffer in the 
abuse. Late hours, intoxicating drinks, and bad companions, in 
many cases form the curse of regular theatre-goers ; and for these 
the plays (perhaps harmless in themselves) are charged with 
being demoralizing. Good plays have an intellectual fascination. 
We think the drama might be made more a school of instruction 
and innocent pastime — less a school of evil tendencies. In China 
and Japan, the female parts in theatrical performances are never 
executed by women. No women ever appeared on the stage of 
the Greeks or Romans. Even the female characters in Shak- 
speare were not represented by women in his time. The first 
lady that appeared on the stage took the parts of Juliet and 
Ophelia in 1660. The publicity attending the life of an actress 
makes it repulsive to many, and the egotism that the profession 
engenders is an objectionable feature. That there are good and 
virtuous people connected with the theatre we cannot for a mo- 
ment question ; but some of the men are worthless and dissipated, 
and many of the girls and women engage in it because they see 
no other way of earning their bread. Many a ballet girl has 
danced to support an infirm mother or orphan brothers and sis- 
ters. The roving life of an actress and want of home influences 
are not conducive to the growth of domestic virtues. Yet some 
actresses have married advantageously in Europe, and been res- 
pected in social life, not less for their virtues than their talents. 
The craving of admiration incident to the calling is apt to make 
an actress vain. Her fondness for excitement, and her conscious- 
ness of importance in the eyes of those who patronize her, furnish 



4:8 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

additional fuel to the fire If she makes a failure, she may die of 
chagrin. Mr. B., a dramatic agent, thinks there is always a sup- 
ply as soon as there is a demand for dramatic performers. They 
cannot enter and leave the profession, like any other. They must 
be actively engaged in it all the time, or leave it. Their talents 
must be carefully considered, and they placed in the company 
that requires them, and in such places as suit their talents. If a 
play in which they excel is to be performed in a distant city, they 
accompany the troupe to which they belong. A company con- 
sists of a combination of various talents. The number employed 
is not fluctuating, but they change their localities often ; that is, 
go from city to city and town to town, shifting their place as 
seems best. They are compensated according to talent and pro- 
ficiency — from $3 a week to $150. They are usually paid accord- 
ing to the contract made with them. I think the voice of actors 
when off the stage is peculiar. It is deep and hollow, as if trained 
to be thrown to a distance. By the drama two of the senses 
which afford most pleasure are entertained — the eye and the ear. 
Madame Celeste made $50,000 clear in this country; Essler, 
$70,000. The play, " Our American Cousin," is said to have 
cleared $40,000 in New York. Mr. P., a dramatic agent, told 
me that actresses are paid according to their position and tal- 
ent. A ballet girl is paid from $3 to $6 a week, if by the sea- 
son. Wallack pays $5 or $6. Utility people are paid from $6 to 
$10. Prices depend very much on who and what the people are, 
and the class of theatre by which they are employed. Those 
of the better class are paid from $25 to $60 a night. When 
they are not required they are not paid anything. In Europe, 
some of the theatres are open during the summer. In New 
York a paper has lately been commenced, devoted almost ex- 
clusively to the drama. " Our great star actors, Mr. Forrest 
or Miss Cushman, command their hundreds of dollars a night. 
The handsome Brignoli or the ponderous Amodio will not dis- 
pense their silver notes short of fabulous thousands of golden 
dollars per month. Those who try the life of an actor speedily 
discover that, of all hard-working men, few render more constant, 
wearing, unceasing labor for their money, than those who consci- 
entiously do their duty in a theatre. Multitudinous and con- 
stantly varying requirements are made of an actor who has achieved 
a leading position. He must be a linguist, an elocutionist, a 
fencer, a dancer, a boxer, a painter (for the proper coloring or 
i making up ' of his own face and figure is no small part of his art), 
a soldier (so far as a knowledge of military drill and the manual 
exercise is concerned) ; and he should be a singer, and a bit of 
an author. In a theatre where a drama unfamiliar to the com- 



ACTEESSES. 49 

pany is produced every night, or in case of a new ■ star,' who 
plays his own pieces, a day's work of an actor may be set down 
as follows : To learn by heart a part not exceeding six ' lengths' 
(a length is forty-two lines), attend rehearsal from ten to one or 
two, and act at night in one or two pieces. That is, six lengths 
new study, rehearsal, and playing at night, is what may be re- 
quired of an actor for a day's work, without giving occasion for 
grumbling at the managers. There are many actors who, upon 
an urgent occasion, will study from ten to fifteen lengths in a 
day, besides attending to their other duties. This, however, is 
never required except in case of sudden sickness of another per- 
former, or some similar extraordinary event. In provincial 
theatres the actors are worked much harder than in New York, 
and paid much less. The starring system universally prevails, 
which necessitates a constant succession of new plays, most of 
which have to be studied from night to night, as a play is not 
often acted two nights in succession in small cities. But when a 
piece has a successful ' run,' the actors have no new study for 
several weeks. Actors are usually engaged for certain lines of 
business ; that is, each one engages to perform only such style 
of characters as he is best qualified to personate. The remunera- 
tion of actors comes next into consideration, and the scale has a 
wide range, from $3 a week up to $200 a night. This last sum 
was for years the demand of Mr. Edwin Forrest. Other stars 
are generally content with certain ' sharing terms ; ' that is, the 
gross receipts, after a certain specific amount has been deducted 
for the expenses of the theatre, are equally divided between the 
star and the manager. Thus, for example, if the expenses of the 
house are $300 per night, and the receipts $400, the lucky star 
and the fortunate manager pocket $50 each per night. This is 
the fairest basis on which to conduct the starring system, because, 
by this plan, the salaries of all the stock company are assured 
first, and the profit of the star depends on his own power of at- 
tracting the public to the theatre. In New York the salaries 
paid to stock actors are higher, on the average, than those in any 
other city in the United States. The managers ignore, to a great 
extent, the technical ' lines of business,' and engage the best art- 
ists that can be had, and then have plays especially written, in 
which each of their leading actors shall have a part suited to his 
peculiar powers. While this plan secures to the New York pub- 
lic the finest acting that can be seen in the country, it also entails 
upon the managers a salary list of dimensions that would swamp 
a provincial theatre in a single week. The leading actors, as 
Messrs. Lester, Blake, and Walcot, at Wallack's Theatre ; 
Messrs. Jefferson, Jordan, and Pearson, at the Winter Garden ; 
3 



50 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Messrs. Mark Smith and Vincent, at Laura Keene's Theatre, 
receive from $50 to $100 per week. Salaries for women are 
about half, or perhaps two thirds of what are paid to men holding 
corresponding positions. General utility men, supernumeraries, 
and ballet girls receive from $3 to $10 per week. When an un- 
usual number of ' ladies of the ballet, 5 or supernumeraries of the 
other sex are required, on some extra occasion, they are specially 
engaged, at 50 cents a night, or sometimes for even less money. 
The salaries on the east side of the city, at the Bowery Theatre, 
are lower than on Broadway, the principal actors seldom receiving 
more than $35 or $40 per week, and the others are in proportion. 
In smaller cities, as Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, &c, the highest 
sum paid to a performer seldom exceeds $25 per week. Actors 
who have achieved a position which warrants them in demanding 
it, stipulate for a i benefit ' in addition to their salaries. On 
these occasions, a third or a half of the gross receipts of the 
evening is paid over to the performer, according as his agreement 
is for a ' third clear' or a l half clear' benefit." 

40. Aquaria Makers, One of the most innocent and 
pleasing amusements that has attracted attention for some time 
is the making of aquaria. The cases are formed of plate glass, 
square, oblong, circular, or any shape to please the fancy of the 
owner. The glass is tightly sealed when joined. The aquaria 
are of two kinds : one is formed of salt water, and contains ma- 
rine plants and animals; the other contains fresh water, and 
such plants and animals as are found in rivers and smaller 
streams. They form a beautiful addition to a garden, conserva- 
tory, or drawing room. Rocks form the foundation, and the soil 
on them furnishes subsistence to the plants. Zoophytes, mollusca, 
and fish form the inhabitants of the aquarium. Insects also find a 
place in this miniature " ocean or river garden." The size for 
parlors is from one foot to three in length. The largest aquaria 
in this country are now on exhibition at Barnum's Museum, New 
York. " They comprise over one thousand specimens of living 
animals and vegetation. In these tanks the water is seldom 
changed, the natural operations of the plants and animals keep- 
ing it always pure." They are made to order in New York, and 
we think might afford a pleasant pastime to some, and pecu- 
niary profit to others. A work giving directions for making 
them has been published in New York. The author is a Mr. 
Butler, who has got up the mammoth aquaria in Barnum's 
Museum. There are two establishments in New York w T here 
they may be ordered, and specimens seen. " Before we leave 
the margin of the sea, we must just glance at the smaller occupa- 
tions pursued there by women. The most considerable of these 



ARCHITECTS. 51 

was once the gathering and burning of kelp ; but chemical 
science has nearly put an end to that. There is still a great 
deal of raking and collecting going on. In some countries half 
the fields are manured with small fish and the offal of larger, 
and sea weeds and sand. Then there is the gathering of jet and 
amber, and various pebbles, and the polishing and working of* 
them. The present rage for studies of marine creatures must 
afford employment to many women who have the shrewdness to 
avail themselves of it." 

41. Architects. Yfe scarcely know to what extent this 
branch of business can come within the province of woman. Yet 
it is as practicable, perhaps, as some we mention. Civil archi- 
tecture is the only one open to women. In this art we are as a 
people little more than novices ; yet great improvements are 
going on. In a century's time, perhaps, the art in this country 
will have obtained the perfection of ancient nations. Properzia 
di Rossi, born in Bologna, 1490, is said to have furnished some 
admirable plans in architecture. The author of " "Women 
Artists" mentions as designers in architecture, Madame Steen- 
wyck, of the Dutch school, and Esther Juvenal, of Nuremberg. 
She also gives the name of a lady who was a practical architect 
in Rome, in the seventeenth century — Plautilla Brizio — who has 
left monuments of her excellence in that species of art. The villa 
G-iraldi, near Rome, is the joint work of this lady and her brother. 
" The wife of Erwin von Steinbach materially assisted her hus- 
band in the erection of the famous Strasbourg cathedral ; and 
within its walls a sculptured stone represents the husband and 
wife as consulting together on the plan." The most varied and 
general information is desirable for a first-class architect. A 
knowledge of drawing and the first principles of geometry are 
the most important requisites. Some architects select the mate- 
rials for the building, which of course requires a knowledge of 
the different kinds and conditions of wood, their fitness for various 
parts of a building ; also, the qualities of iron, stone, brick, and 
whatever goes toward making up the building. An architect 
should also select the most suitable site for the erection of the 
intended structure, which would be decided, to some extent, by 
the way in which it was to be used. He also should be able to 
judge the nature of the soil, and the way in which a want of fit- 
ness may be remedied. Then he must see that the foundation is 
securely laid ; and, as the building progresses, that the workmen 
carry out the details of the plan which he furnishes. Much of 
this work seems unsuitable for women ; but the making and 
executing of plans could be very well done by them. It would 
give exercise to their taste and inventive talents. Men employ- 



52 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

ed in architectural drawing earn from $1.25 to $3 a day of ten 
hours. Miss H. told me of a wealthy lady in New York who is 
quite an architect by nature. Mrs. D. told me of a young lady 
of her acquaintance who is gifted with talents that would make a 
superior architect. She has planned several houses for her father, 
who has sold them at an advance of from $3,000 to $4,000, on 
account of the convenient arrangement of the rooms and their 
tasteful decoration. She displays exquisite taste in the selection 
and arrangement of furniture. She is withal economical in her 
expenditures. She is a close calculator of the cost of materials, 
and a great economist of space. 

42. Cameo Cutters. There are two kinds of cameo cut- 
ting — one with a lapidary's wheel, of hard stones, as the onyx and 
the sardonyx. The shell cameos are cut with small steel chisels, 
from the white portion of the shell, leaving the chocolate color for 
the background. The figures are in relief. The stone is pre- 
pared by the lapidary, and the artist arranges his design accord- 
ing to the capabilities of the stone. He makes a drawing in pa- 
per on an enlarged scale, and a model in wax of the exact size, 
and the latter is carefully compared with the stone, and such al- 
terations made as the markings on the stone seem to require. 
The outline is then sketched on the surface, and cut with tools 
prepared for that purpose. After it has been properly cut, it is 
smoothed and polished. In Mrs. Lee's " Sculpture and Sculptors " 
we find an account of those that have engaged in cameo cutting 
in the United States. Mrs. Dubois, of New York, cut several 
cameo likenesses of her friends, and so well did she succeed that 
she went to Italy to acquire proficiency in the art ; but the artist 
to whom she applied said he could teach her nothing — she had 
only to study the antique. John C. King, a sculptor of Boston, 
has also engaged in the art of cutting cameos ; and Peter Stephen- 
son, of Boston, had cut in 1853 between 600 and 700 cameo like- 
nesses. He writes me : " Cameo cutting might be done by girls, 
especially the finishing process — polishing. When in Italy, some 
years ago, I employed girls to polish my cameos, and paid from 12 
to 50 cents apiece. I think they earned about $1 a day. The 
employ uient is not unhealthy, but confining." Margaret Foley, 
formerly a member of the New England school of design, re- 
sided in Lowell, and cut cameos at $35 apiece. She was kept 
busy in filling orders. The Misses Withers, of Charleston, S. C, 
are said to cut cameo likenesses with beauty and skill. I saw 
Mr. L. a Frenchman, in New York, copying a likeness from a da- 
guerreotype. He also copies from life. He learned the business 
in Paris. He charges $15 for those large enough for a breastpin, 
and which it requires him about three days to make; smaller 



COPPERPLATE ENGRAVERS — DAGTTERREANS. 53 

ones are lower in price. He imports the stones, and furnishes 
without extra charge to those for whom he works. A good in- 
taglio worker can make cameos, but a cameo worker cannot make 
intaglios. Some men can never learn the business. It would 
form a beautiful pastime and a profitable and refined occupation 
for a lady, if sufficient work could be obtained. 

43. Copperplate Engravers. In a hasty reading of 
" Women Artists, " we find mention made of a number of ladies 
occupied at various times, in different European countries, as cop- 
perplate engravers : in the sixteenth century, one in Holland, and 
one in Italy ; in the seventeenth century, Germany produced seven, 
France one, Spain one, and Italy three ; in the eighteenth century, 
Italy two, France one, and Denmark one. It may have been that 
some escaped my notice. Mr. S. told me he knew a family of cop- 
perplate engravers ; but the daughters are now married. I saw a 
lady who engraves on copper ; she had an office in JMew York. 
She was willing to instruct a lady on these terms : after the pupil 
had acquired about six months 7 practice, she would allow her half 
for all the work she did in six months more ; then she could be 
at liberty to work for herself. She thinks a year sufficient time 
to acquire a good knowledge and practice of card engraving. 
She had spent a year at it irregularly, having no instructor, but 
asking advice and assistance now and then. In that way she did 
not obtain the custom she would have done by being known to 
others. The patience and careful attention to details requisite, 
and the sedentary nature of engraving, render it a more suitable 
occupation for women than men. To make a good card engraver, 
an educated eye, a steady hand, and ability to form letters grace- 
fully, are the principal requisites. A card engraver told me he 
knew a lady who assisted her husband in his work, that of cop- 
perplate engraving. As the people of the United States become 
wealthy, and cultivate a taste for the fine arts, engravers will be 
more patronized. There is a collection of old and choice copper- 
plate engravings in the possession of Mr. Plassman, who has a 
school of art in New York ; there is also such a collection at the 
Historical rooms in the same city. 

44. Baguerreans. The process consists in concentrating 
the light of the sun on a metal plate, so prepared by chemicals 
as to retain the impression of an image that falls upon it. The 
shadow catcher has become almost interwoven with the every-day 
realities of life. Prof. Draper speaks of daguerreotyping as in- 
troducing a beautiful work, in which " the fair sex may engage 
without compromising a single delicate quality of woman's na- 
ture." Some artists, not content with moving in the ordinary 
way from place to place, have cars built that roll on wheels and 



54 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

are drawn by horses. The daguerrean sleeps in his little home, 
and, on the road, far away from a good tavern, can even do his 
own cooking, or have it done, in his car. The business has also 
been carried on by men in small boats, floating down rivers and 
stopping at villages and farm houses. It requires taste and judg- 
ment both to make an operator and to color. Colorers of photo- 
graphs could, if skilful and constantly employed, earn $30 a week 
in large cities. An operator, if busy, works from 9 to 5 o'clock 
in winter. A wonderful improvement has taken place in the da- 
guerrean art since its discovery. A lady daguerrean and photog- 
rapher writes me : " Ladies are employed in the business as ope- 
rators, and to superintend ; also to repaint and retouch photo- 
graphs. With care in the use of chemicals, I do not consider it 
particularly unhealthy ; less so, I think, than sewing by hand or 
machine. No person will do well for himself, herself, or patrons, 
who commences business without a good knowledge of it. The 
time of learning will depend upon the individual's knowledge of the 
sciences bearing on photography, and their talent for the business. 
It would vary from two weeks to three months. The labor of 
the learner is usually given while learning, and from $25 to $100 
besides. Spring and fall are the best seasons, summer the poor- 
est ; but there is no time during the year in which there is not 
something to do. I operate and superintend in my own estab- 
lishment, and hire a boy only, who does chores. The principal 
discomforts of the business are the heat to which we are exposed 
in summer (being usually and necessarily near the roof), the 
smell of chemicals (which do not unpleasantly affect any one), 
and the soiling of clothing, which is more unavoidable with 
women. The amount of business, and consequently the location, 
decide the profits of the business. As the business is attended 
with considerable expense, it is necessary, in order to make it 
pay, to seek a good location. It is profitable when a person is 
well established in a desirable location. I think ladies and 
children usually prefer a lady artist. Upon the whole, I think 
the business quite as suitable for women as men. There is 
generally more or less spare time, but a woman is most apt to 
occupy such time with fancy work or reading." A daguerrean 
writes : " Women are sometimes employed in the reception room 
to receive ladies — occasionally, in the operating room. They 
receive from $3 to $8, according to capacity and address. Men 
generally command better prices, because they can sometimes 
perform labor out of a woman's sphere, such as unpacking goods, 
carrying packages, and other jobs, not suitable for women. I 
think the business as healthy as any indoor business. It requires 
from six to twelve months to learn the duties of the operating 



SCHOOLS OF DESIGN. 55 

room ; for the reception room, from one to three weeks. Industry, 
patience, perseverance, shrewdness, and suavity of manners, are 
the necessary Qualifications. Prospect for employment poor, as 
prices are reduced to almost nothing. All seasons are nearly 
alike. November and June are dull. Our women work in sum- 
mer from seven a. m. to six p. m. The work averages about eight 
hours per clay the year through. Men are superior in patience (?) 
and force of character. Women are easily discouraged, and lia- 
ble to be petulant. In many instances, there is much running 
up and down stairs, which is harder on women than men. And 
there is too much standing for a woman's health." 

45. Schools of Design. Schools of design were estab- 
lished 444 B. C, for the purpose of improvement in making stat- 
uary. The arts declined when Europe was overrun by barbarous 
tribes, but in the eleventh century began to recover, and in 1350 
several painters, sculptors, and architects formed an academy of 
design at Florence. In Paris there are seven schools of design for 
males, and two for females, supported by the city. There are seventy 
schools of design in Great Britain, and there is an annual exhibition 
of their work in London, where premiums are awarded. It is about 
twenty years since the schools were commenced in England. In 
1854 nearly 1,500 students had been educated in the School of 
Arts in Edinburgh. There are schools of design in New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. The object of these schools 
is to give a knowledge of some industrial branches of the fine arts. 
" The greater part of the higher order of designs are practically 
unavailable, for want of knowledge, on the part of the designer, of 
the conditions of the particular manufacture in question. The 
economic possibility and aptitude are not studied ; and hence, the 
manufacturers say, an enormous waste of thought, skill, and indus- 
try. This want supplied, a field of industry practically boundless 
would be opened to female artists, as well as artisans; and it 
would be an enlightened policy to look to this while the whole 
world seems to be opening its ports to our productions." Mrs. 
Alice B. Havens writes of the school of design in Philadelphia : 
" When novelty and jealousy shall have ceased to excite envy 
and suspicion among those who would keep our sex from honest 
independence, a wide sphere of employment will be opened by this 
and similar institutions to educate intelligent women ; for surely, 
if English manufacturers are not content to be under the control 
of foreign influence, our own countrymen can never be." The 
largest class of wood engravers is in the school of New York ; the 
largest for designing on wall paper, in Philadelphia. More time 
has been devoted to instruction in drawing in the New York than 
the Philadelphia school. Without some practice in drawing, 



56 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

nothing can be accomplished in either wood engraving or design- 
ing. Designing, in some of its branches, is taught in all of the 
schools. Designs for paper hangings, calicoes, and wood engrav- 
ing receive most attention. Designs for carpets, silks, ribbons, 
furniture, lace, plated ware, silver, jewelry, &c, have received 
but little, if any attention — those for casts and moulds, no more. 
If women of taste and cultivation attain superiority in designing, 
we doubt not they will reap a very fair harvest for their work. 
Lithography, wood engraving, drawing and painting, are also 
taught in schools of design. There are now in the school of de- 
sign, New York, between 200 and 300 pupils : some are wood en- 
gravers, some designers, and some painters. " The earnings of 
the pupils in the classes of drawing and engraving are as varied 
as their skill and experience, but are about the same as those 
of men who have been at those branches of art the same length 
of time. Engravers and designers are generally qualified to 
work on orders the second year of their practice. With industry 
and the use of their ivhole time during school hours, pupils may 
expect an increase of about a $100 a year for several years. 
The income from the branches of art taught in the school must 
always be proportioned to the talent, experience, habits of appli- 
cation, and rapidity of hand shown by the artist. The en- 
gravers in the school who best understand drawing have the best 
work, and even the highest wages. The pupils have the entire ben- 
efit of their earnings." " At Lyons, France, the manufacture of 
divers stuffs absorbs the hands of thousands of men and women ; 
but the men, only, enjoy the privilege of inventing combinations 
of forms and colors destined to inveigle the eyes of fashionable 
caprice." In the school of design, Philadelphia, a charge of $9 
per quarter is made to amateur pupils for instruction, and a 
charge of $4 per quarter to professional pupils. In the school 
of design, New York, a charge of $4 per quarter is made to pupils 
who acquire instruction as an accomplishment : to those fitting for 
a profession, no charge is made. A lady teacher in the New 
England school of design had a salary of $400. We will copy 
an article placed at our disposal on the artistic employments 
of women in America. It was written by a former principal of 
the school of design in Boston : " The artistic employments of 
women in this country may be divided into three classes : 1st, 
those devoted to the fine arts ; 2d, those engaged in de- 
signing and the business departments of the arts; 8d, teachers 
of drawing, painting, &c. — 1. Under this head comparatively 
few will be found; the number, however, is fast increasing, and as 
avenues of sale for their works are found, I doubt not that there 
will be a marked improvement both in the quality of their work 



SCHOOLS OF DESIGN. 57 

and in the amount paid for their labor. Most who pursue this 
department are confined to portrait painting or crayon portraits. 
I have seen beautiful portraits in colored crayons executed by 
ladies. I regret to say a comparatively small price was given, 
varying from $10 to $25, while works executed by men not a 
whit superior in any respect would command from $25 to $50, 
and even more. — 2. Designing, and the Business Department 
of the Art. This admits of several divisions, and first we will 
take designing for textile materials. When women are engaged 
in the mills, their labor is very poorly paid for, compared with the 
payment made to the other sex. I know of about twenty women 
who are so engaged. The prices paid for their labor varies from 
$1 to $2 per day — men receiving from §800 to $1,200 and even 
$1,500 per annum. The difference here, however, is not so great, 
when the time given by the two to the necessary study is com- 
pared. Many of the male designers serve an apprenticeship 
varying from three to seven years before they are supposed to be 
fitted to take the situation of designer in a mill, and even this does 
not include the preliminary instruction in the school. Women, on 
the contrary, after a year or little more of study, enter the mill on 
equal terms with the prepared designer, his pay at the commence- 
ment of his engagement usually being from $1 to $1.50 per day. 
The employment of women at all in this department is almost a 
new thing, and is not yet countenanced .to any ^reat extent. 
Time, however, will remove all difficulties in the way, and, w by 
steady perseverance I think woman will be able to show herself 
superior to man in this branch, because it is more in her own do- 
main than in that of man. When the designs of women are present- 
ed to manufacturers and found acceptable, they will command a 
price equal to the designs of men. This I speak from experience, 
having disposed of designs for silver ware, printed coach linings, 
coach lace, paper for walls, calicoes, delaines, and muslins, and other 
articles of like nature. These have commanded the same price 
as the designs of men, but it is difficult at times to find a market 
for them. I remember presenting some designs to a manufacturer, 
about two years since, which were very much praised ; but when I 
stated they were made by ladies, at first it was said to be im- 
possible, and then they sunk in value, were wrong in the mechan- 
ical detail, were not adapted to the purpose for which they were 
intended ; but, unfortunately for the truth of the latter statement, 
they were disposed of to another manufacturer in the same street, 
who had formed rather a different idea of the powers of women 
as compared with men. A second branch of business art is draw- 
ing for mechanical purposes and patent inventions. There are 
in this city many ladies who earn quite a handsome income by 
3* 



58 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

drawing for the patent office, patent agents, &c, the drawings 
chiefly linear mechanical ones, the remuneration varying accord- 
ing to ability. Some are paid by the piece, and others by the 
day. The day laborers earn from $1 to $2, and in two instances 
$2.25 and $2.50 per day. The price of work varies according to 
size, intricacy, finish, &c, the rate being nearly that which 
men receive, in some instances the same. This requires me- 
chanical knowledge which is not very often possessed by women, 
but is a branch of study that would be found both pleasant and 
profitable, especially if they were prepared for it by an elemen- 
tary course in the public schools. It is not a branch that admits 
of much display, and is therefore almost entirely neglected, or 
taught in such a way as to be utterly futile for all practical 
purposes. A third branch is architectural drawing. I know 
of but one instance of a woman pursuing this branch, which is 
both delightful, useful, and very profitable. Perhaps there is 
not any department of the fine arts to which woman might more 
successfully devote herself than to this. Such a devotion of 
woman's power would tend to abolish the gross deformities we so 
often see paraded before our eyes in the streets, in the form of 
buildings presenting every possible incongruity of shape and 
every perversion of the beauty of form. This requires much 
study, but would eventually repay for all the time and trouble 
that would be bestowed upon it. A fourth is wood and other en- 
graving. This commands as high a price as men's labor, when 
brought into the market ; but when women are employed in en- 
graving establishments, the grossest injustice is shown them in 
the inequality of the payments made. A woman will receive, in 
the same place, for the same amount of labor, a sum not exceeding 
half of that paid to the men in the same employment. In England 
this department stands on a perfect equality as regards sex. The 
quality of the work being the test of price, it is the same to men 
as to women, if the quality is the same. — 3. Teachers of Draiving 
and Painting. This is always most profitable when pursued 
independently of the schools. When it is so pursued, the rate of 
payment varies from $5 to $25 per quarter, for each pupil, except- 
ing in the case of very small children, when the prices may be a 
trifle lower, but the same would be the case with men as with 
women. In most academies the service of teaching in this de- 
partment is given by preference to women, and at the same price. 
When they are engaged simply as assistants, then a gross ine- 
quality begins. A man would be paid say $200 or $300 per an- 
num for one half day a week — a woman $100 or $150 at most. 
The reason for this lies deeper than I can divine, but in other in- 
stances when a lower price is paid, it is generally the fault of the 



MISCELLANEOUS DESIGNERS. 59 

individual employed. There should, if possible (and I conceive it 
to be so), be a fixed rate for teaching a certain number of pupils, 
and so much more additional for every one added: this would 
give a general rate for all to make their demands upon. If more 
branches, or extended time, or any other demand was made upon 
the individual teaching, then they would have some standard 
whereby to regulate the extra charges. There is only one feature 
which requires to be somewhat changed, and that is a tendency 
to superficiality. Women oftentimes commence to teach before 
they themselves have taken more than the most elementary steps 
for their own improvement. Time will, however, regulate this 
deficiency ; and as the resources of improvement open to all, those 
who devote themselves to the honorable employment of teaching 
will take all proper steps to fit themselves for the office. — There 
is no department of the fine arts — painting, sculpture, archi- 
tecture, or manufacturing design — in which woman may not run 
an equal race with man, if she takes the same trouble and care 
to fit herself for it, and, when fitted, is faithful to her own interests 
and her profession. This will never be accomplished by schools 
of design as at present instituted, for they lose their character 
and become designing shops. This must be laid aside, and 
culture, with a general or specific object, be alone attended to 
for the time necessary to learn properly and thoroughly what 
they are about to practise. Men and women both, now expect to 
learn the art of designing fully in the course of six or twelve months. 
This can only be done to a limited extent, depending on the 
powers of the pupil, the mode of instruction, and the capacity of 
the teacher to win and to guide those committed to his or her 
care. If the profession is entered upon with unfitness and want of 
knowledge, then the prices of labor will be necessarily reduced 
to a low scale; if with fitness, and a certainty of our own ca- 
pacity, we can demand ' a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.' 
The interests of this nation demand the production of native 
designs, and whenever her children are fully fitted to produce 
them, are competent to put their designs side by side with those 
of other nations and challenge a comparison, every other 
obstacle will dwindle into a shadow, and every difficulty that 
now stands in the way of woman's natural place, in art at least, 
will be finally removed — to which end i may God speed the 
plough.' " 

46. Miscellaneous Designers. Designing is a pecu- 
liar, and more a natural than a cultivated talent. A few years 
ago, Miss M. drew on stone for the New England Glass Company. 
She received $10 a page, which she could generally do in four 
days, working only four hours per day. Two men had at differ- 



60 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

ent times done the work for the company, one receiving less, and 
the other more than she. Misses L. and R. drew and designed 
in the carpet factory at Lowell. They received $1.25 per day. 
A young lady who designed at the Pacific Mills, in Lawrence, 
was said to receive $3 per day. Miss S., who had given but 
eighteen months' practice to drawing, designed for ground and 
painted glass, and received $6 per week. Designs for toys, dis- 
sected pictures, games, puzzles, &c, are an appropriate filling up 
of spare moments for a designer. I was told by an English 
seller of embroideries, that, in England, designing and making 
patterns for embroideries is a distinct business. He has been at 
it many years, and does not feel himself perfect yet. It is not 
made a distinct branch in this country yet, because there is not 
enough of it done. Here a few primary patterns can be arranged 
and rearranged so as to answer all the demands of trade. A great 
deal of money is expended on monuments, but there is a want of 
variety in the designs. A wide field is here opened to operators 
in this department. Some designers in Boston write me : " Only 
a few ladies are employed in our business, for there are not many 
who are willing to devote the time necessary to become proficient. 
Some are employed in Europe. The employment is not more 
unhealthy than sewing. Women are paid according to their pro- 
ficiency, and earn from $3 to $15 per week. Women receive the 
same compensation as men, if they do the work as well and as 
fast, but they ordinarily cannot do either. They are not paid 
until they have spent two or three years learning. A combina- 
tion of artistic and mechanical talent is required. The prospect 
for employment is good. There is not much variation in the 
seasons for work. Ten hours is the average time required. 
There are now as many in the business as can find lucrative or 
constant employment. It requires not less than five years, gen- 
erally more, to be a fair general workman in this business. Bos- 
ton, New York, and Philadelphia are about the only places 
where there is a demand for designers. A first-class education 
and cultivated taste are absolutely necessary to success." 

47. Designers for Calico Prints. This employment 
is well adapted to women. It requires taste and ingenuity. Its 
labors are light, but rather confining. A person of lively fancy 
and nice powers of discrimination succeeds best. The gay, rich, 
jark colors of winter clothing are not suitable for summer ; nor 
>^re the light, delicate ones of summer suitable for winter clothing, 
^his inviting field of labor, now that it is unbarred to woman, we 
ihope will be well improved. Let her enter, and she will find 
sufficient to " reward a careful gleaner with a valuable sheaf or 
two." We do not speak of inventing and preparing designs for 



EMPLOYES IN THE UNITED STATES MINT. 61 

calico prints particularly, but of the general field for designers. 
Some proprietors engage a designer (here and there a lady) 
to stay at their establishments, and devote all their time to the 
preparing of designs — paying a fixed salary for the month, year, 
or any time specified. Some adopt the same plan in wall-paper 
establishments. The price generally paid for a design pattern 
for calicoes is from $1 to $3. 

48. Designers for Wall Paper. One of the most 
important branches of designing is that of preparing patterns for 
wall paper, fire screens, &c. In the report of the Philadelphia 
School of Design it is stated that one of the ladies of that school 
received 860 for a design some time ago. They seldom bring- 
that much, and all designs prepared will not sell. The usual 
price for a good hall design is from $12 to $20 ; and of paper for 
a room, from $12 to $16. We fear it will be long before the 
beautiful designs of the French are equalled by Americans. 
Their taste must be more highly cultivated before such is the 
case. Mr. C, of New York, employs a designer (Frenchman), 
paying him $1,000 a year, who receives in another manufactory 
a salary of $3,000 a year. N. C. & Co. get some of their pat- 
terns from the school of design in Paris, because the French 
have more taste in designing, or, rather, that taste has been more 
cultivated. Brande gives the merits of designing as follows : 
u Every work of design is to be considered either in relation to 
the art that produced it, to the nature of its adaptation to the 
end sought, or to the nature of the end it is destined to serve ; 
thus its beauty is dependent on the wisdom or excellence dis- 
played in the design, in the fitness or propriety of the adaptation, 
and upon the utility of the end." 

49. Draughtswomen. There are several kinds of 
draughting, or drawing on stone : architectural, mechanical, 
letter, figure, and landscape. Very few women have undertaken 
draughting in any of its branches. But we do not see why it 
should be confined to men. We suppose the minds of some 
women are as well adapted to the business as those of some men. 
Our ideas of the fitness of women for architectural drawing are 
given under the article Architects. 

50. Employes in the United States Mint. A 
very interesting description of the employment of ladies in the 
United States Mint at Philadelphia will be found in Godey's 
Lady's Book, of August, 1852. Col. Snowden, Director of the 
Mint, writes to me as follows : " Women are employed to adjust 
the weight of the blanks or planchets, preparatory to the coinage — 
each piece for the gold coinage being separately weighed and ad- 
justed. So also are the larger coins of silver ; namely, the dollar 



62 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

and the half dollar. They are also employed in feeding the coin- 
ing presses. There are about fifty women at present employed. 
This force is amply sufficient for our present operations, and for 
any additional amount of work that the mint may fee called on 
to perform. The employments in which they are engaged are 
healthy and pleasant. Some years ago the women received 
seventy-five cents a day in the adjusting room, and eighty-five 
cents for those employed in the coining room. Since that time 
I have increased their per diem compensation to &1.10 in both de- 
partments. They are paid monthly. Men employed in labor of 
a similar character secure about $2.20 per day. A day's work 
is about ten hours ; ordinarily the women do not work more than 
seven or eight hours ; sometimes more, sometimes less, but never 
beyond ten hours. There are no other occupations in the mint, 
than where they are now employed, suitable for women. I am 
greatly in favor of employing women, and I have extended the 
employment of them as far as it is practicable. For adjusting the 
weight of coins, and attending or feeding the coining presses, I 
consider women as not inferior to men, except that they cannot 
endure work for as great a number of hours. 1 ' The adjusting 
room is kept very close, as even the breath of a person may affect 
the gold dust. The windows are kept closed on that account all 
the year. Visitors are not permitted to enter this room. I have 
been told that the adjusters wear chamois dresses, which they 
change before leaving the mint. They are required to wash their 
hands and clean their nails before leaving the premises, lest gold 
dust should be in them. A great many applications are made 
for situations in the mint. None but a thoroughly honest person 
should occupy so responsible a place." 

51. Engravers and Chasers of Gold and Silver. 
I was told by a lady in Philadelphia, that had been engaged with 
her husband for some years in chasing the backs of gold watches, 
and had laid by quite a snug little fortune, that from $5 to $6 is 
paid for engraving a watch case. It requires many -years to 
render one a competent gold or silver chaser — I think about five 
years. A general engraver told me he thought women could very 
well engrave jewelry, silver, and card plates. The superior taste 
of women could be exercised to advantage. He thinks a woman 
of good abilities could cbtain sufficient practice to earn good 
wages at the expiration of six months. It is a very confining 
business, but one that pays well. It requires more skill in draw- 
ing than beauty of penmanship, though the last is a desirable 
item. A good engraver calculates to earn $1 an hour. The kinds 
most suitable for a lady are so clean that she need not have 
her clothes soiled by her work. Mr. C. knew a lady once in 



ENGRAVERS AND CHASERS OF GOLD AND SILVER. 63 

New York who was a beautiful engraver. She learned the 
business with her father. A watchmaker can soon learn to en- 
grave, because he uses similar tools, and knows how to handle 
them. A person that can engrave watches could easily engrave 
coarser work. Engravers, when employed by the week, earn from 
$12 to $25 ; and $15 a week is a fair average of an engraver's 
wages. An engraver cannot well work more than nine hours a 
day. Ornamental engraving is done in some jewelry manufac- 
tories by women. Engraving is done with gravers, but chasing 
is executed with punches and a small hammer. Engraving is 
more on the surface than chasing. An article chased is indented 
on the inner side, one engraved is not. It requires some time to 
excel in chasing and engraving. There are two kinds of watch 
engraving — that of landscape and that of borders. I was told by an 
Englishman that some silver-plate chasing is done in England by 
women. A jeweler writes : " We occasionally employ women in 
engraving — on brass, and we do not find any difficulty. In this 
branch of business, we believe, they are more suitable than men." 
Mr. S., who engraves on gold, silver, and other bright metals, 
told me that a long time back all the engraving in his branch 
was done in England by women. It is light work. The design- 
ing is like a lawyer's work — hard on the brain. Most engravers 
in this country do their own designing. His father was the first 
engraver in New York. He takes apprentices for five years, not 
paying anything the first year, the second, $2 a week and clothing, 
and increases according to the attainments of the learner. There 
are two kinds of engraving in his branch : the line engraving- 
can be done with one tool, the other kind requires several. He 
can obtain foreigners who can do both kinds (usually called mon- 
grel engraving), and who would be glad to get work. Chasing 
and polishing are about as good mechanical pursuits as a woman 
can follow. Some silver chasing is done by filling the article 
with sand, and striking with proper tools ; some is pressed with 
heavy machinery. Soft chasing is done on metals, but the chas- 
ing of plated ware requires some strength in the wrists, and is 
done before being plated. The patterns are placed before the 
workers. It requires a long time and application to acquire pro- 
ficiency. More women could find employment as chasers, if they 
would apply themselves long and closely enough. A chaser, who 
employs eight girls in Providence in making and chasing jewelry, 
writes: " They earn from $4 to $5 per week, but men from $15 
to $18. Women cannot do their work as well as men. Men 
spend from two to three years learning, women from one to two 
months. Spring and fall are the best seasons. The prospect 
of employment for women in this branch is good. There are 



64: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

other parts of the jewelry business in which women could be em- 
ployed, and I think they will be. I prefer to employ women, 
because they are cheaper." A jewelry engraver writes : " In 
some branches of our style of engraving, women are employed in 
France and Germany. The occupation is sedentary. The 
average rate of workmen is $12. I think women could command 
the same prices as men. It requires about one year to learn. 
There are but few first-class engravers. A bold and steady 
hand, a ready and quick ingenuity, which would qualify a person 
to be a good draughtsman and designer, are the qualifications 
most needed for an engraver. About fifteen years ago there was 
no demand for engraving, but it is now on the increase, and con- 
sidered a necessary finish to jewelrj^. About the Christmas 
holidays are the best seasons for work. Ten hours a day are 
required. In the Western and Southern States are openings — 
in large cities a surplus. I think, women are peculiarly adapted 
to engraving, but they would be likely to marry, and then we 
would have our trouble to repeat in teaching new learners." 

52. Equestrians and Gymnasts. In equestrian enter- 
tainments, much depends on the accessories. Without music, arti- 
ficial light, and paintings, they would be rather tame. The 
principal requisites for a circus rider I take to be agility, grace, 
and fearlessness. Size and form have not so much to do in 
making a successful rider and gymnast as one would suppose. 
The athletic exercises require vigor and firmness of muscle. 
One should be trained from the earliest childhood. Children 
usually begin as early as three years old. In former times, these 
children were, many of them, picked up in the streets, and there 
is no doubt that these human waifs had a hard time of it ; but 
now many of the professionals bring up their own children to the 
business. All the performers, in addition to their several " star " 
or " single " acts in the ring, are required to appear in any capacity 
assigned them in the scenic pieces and spectacles, and to attend 
the rehearsals of the same ; also, to appear and remain on the 
stage in proper dresses, for the purpose of filling the scene, and 
giving a gay and animated appearance to the stage. Mr. Nixon's 
establishment, New York, being the most complete in the country, 
and being thoroughly systematized in every department, will 
serve as the best source from which to derive information con- 
cerning the routine duties required, and the weekly moneys paid 
there to circus performers. u The principal performers in Mr. 
Nixon's company are paid as follows : Ella Zoyara, equestrian, 
in addition to first-class passage from England and back for 
self and two servants, medical attendance for self and servants, 
carriage and horses whenever required, and a benefit every two 



HEKBAKIUM MAKERS. 65 

weeks, receives per week $500 ; Mr. William Cooke, equestrian, 
manager, passages for self and wife from England and return, 
and per week, $500 ; James Robinson, equestrian, for self and three 
horses, $305 ; the Hanlon brothers, six persons, gymnasts, per week 
$800; Mr. Charlton, stilt walker, passage, &c, $125; Mr. Duve- 
rey, contortionist, passage, &c, $125 ; Mile. Helmse, equestrienne, 
$100; Mile. Clementine, equestrienne, $100 ; M. and Mad. Du 
Boch, equestrians, $100 ; Master Barclay, equestrian, ten years 
old, $75 ; Mr. Whitby, ringmaster and equestrian, $100 ; Mr. S. 
Stikney, equestrian and general performer, $100 ; Mr. J. Pent- 
land, clown, $100 ; Mr, Ellingham, ringmaster and general per- 
former, $40 ; Mr. Armstrong, equestrian and general performer, 
$40; W. Kincaid, do., $40; W. Pastor, do., $30; W. Bertine, 
do., $30; Brennan, do., $25; Niel, do., $25 ; F. Sylvester, do., 
$20; A. Sylvester, do., $20; W. Ward, slack rope and clown, 
$30 ; Prof. Yates, ballet master, $25 ; Mr. Stark, general per- 
former, $25 ; S. Buggies, $20 ; Davenport, $20 ; Foster, $20 ; 
Peterson, $20 ; four lady equestrians, per week, each $20 ; and 
twenty ballet girls and twenty supernumeraries." We extract 
from an English paper the following statement : " In Paris, no 
less than 15,000 persons were admitted yesterday, although the 
prices were doubled for the occasion, to witness the performance 
on the tight rope of a woman— Madame Blanche Saqui — who is 
entering her eighty- fifth year." 

53. Etchers and Stamp Cutters. In England, in the 
seventeenth century, Anna and Susannah Lister were regarded as 
having much skill in the noble art of etching. They illustrated a 
work on natural history written by their father. A century later, 
the Countess Lavinia Spencer and a Miss Hartley became noted 
for their skill in etching. Kosa Elizabeth Schwindel, of Leipsic, 
worked at the business of a stamp cutter in the beginning of the 
eighteenth century ; and two Frenchwomen during the same cen- 
tury — M. A. de St. Urbin and E. Lesueur. 

54. Herbarium Makers. Herbariums are collections 
of dried plants. They are formed by gluing to sheets of paper 
the flowers and leaves of plants, after they have been pressed and 
dried. To botanists, they are useful ; and a choice collection is 
a frail, but pretty ornament, for a centre table. The largest 
public herbaria are at Berlin, Paris, and London. It is supposed 
that some of them may contain as many as 60,000 species. There 
is not much of beauty or interest in such a collection, but for 
scientific purposes they may be valuable. It is not unusual to see 
them made of the plants and weeds of the sea ; and a very pretty 
collection do they make, if got up with taste. A book has been 
lately printed containing plates, with explanations for making 



66 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

them into pictures and other fanciful arrangements. The mak- 
ing of herbariums of both earth and marine plants, would furnish 
a pleasant pastime to ladies of leisure, and a source of revenue, 
perhaps, to those who might wish to make it a matter of profit. 

55. Lapidaries. A skilful manipulation is necessary to 
the' business of a lapidary. If woman has sufficient firmness of 
nerve to perform the duties of surgeon, we see not why she would 
not have for the cutting of precious stones. It is a business 
conducted on a limited scale and by few persons in this country. 
Mr. E., of New York, told me that a lady in Birmingham, Eng- 
land, had a large establishment, and employed women and girls 
to work for her. He knew of no lady that worked at the business 
in the United States, except one that used to be in an establish- 
ment on Broadway. The employment, he thinks, is not unhealthy. 
After a lady has learned, she would probably earn from $4 to $5 
a week, working for others. He received $12 a week when work- 
ing as a journeyman. He spent seven years as an apprentice in 
England, but he learned the manufacture of jewelry in connection. 
The prospect of employment depends much on the condition of 
the money market, but there is reason to think the business will 
increase as the country grows older. All seasons of the year are 
alike. Money matters only make a change. He says there are 
many books written on the precious stones and the art of cutting 
and polishing them. He mentioned a book by a lady of London 
on the subject. Mr. H., an importer and manufacturer of corne- 
lian and other fancy goods, told me that grinding precious stones 
is very hard work. Men lie across wooden benches to apply the 
agate, cornelian, or whatever it may be, to the grindstone. There 
are eight grindstones, weighing twenty tons each, on one axle. 
The polishing is done by boys, who sit at small wooden wheels, 
some of which are covered with leather. Sometimes women do 
this work. As this method of grinding stones is done by water 
power, it is done more cheaply than by steam. In Germany, a 
man who works at precious stones or makes up jewelry at home, 
has his wife and daughters to assist him, and hires a peasant girl 
to do his housework. The women and girls make the fastenings 
for earrings, and file and polish the rings. He pays seventy cents 
a gross in Germany for them. He says, in the country and vil- 
lages of northern Germany daughters are considered treasures, 
for they remain at home, and by their handiwork maintain them- 
selves ; but in the south of Germany, where there are no manufac- 
tures, girls are a burden on their parents. B., of Philadelphia, 
used to employ girls to set up jet, garnet, and turquoise for grind- 
ing j but those stones are now out of fashion, and so girls are not 
employed. He says an old lady, whose daughter is connected 



LANDSCAPE GARDENERS. 67 

witli the Home Mission, wished them to give instruction to her 
daughter in catting stones, that she might, as a pastime, cut those 
brought by members of the family from the seashore and water- 
ing places. He thought it likely she would also teach the art in 
the Mission School. Cutting facets he thought pretty work for 
women. They can either sit or stand at the tables. There is 
nothing unhealthy in the grinding, as the stones are kept wet all 
the time. But the dust used in nipping glass and stones is in- 
jurious to the lungs. When a man has been nipping all day, his 
nostrils are nearly closed. The amount of work depends on 
fashion. There are seven establishments in Providence, and the 
work is done by steam. Some stones cannot be cut by steam 
machinery, as the wheel must every few seconds be graduated in 
motion. In hard times, the jewelry business and employments 
connected therewith are dull, as people dispense with superfluities. 
Southerners buy most jewelry, but now they do not indulge in 
such purchases. 

56. Landscape Gardeners. Mrs. R. often goes and 
looks at gardens, directs how to lay them out, and what to buy 
for them. She then orders the plants of others, and sells on com- 
mission, having them arranged according to her own taste, influ- 
enced by that of the purchaser. Her purchases are made of a 
German, living some distance from town, who can raise them 
cheaper than she could in the city. Her compensation, of course, 
varies greatly. A landscape gardener writes : " What a lady 
could do as landscape gardener at the West, I do not know. 
I am rather inclined to doubt her success at the East. It would 
require too much time and space to enter here into the details of 
what are required to constitute a landscape gardener : First, one 
must have a decided love for it, and a willingness to sacrifice 
much to the pleasure of the occupation. Nor can I say a great 
deal in favor of the profits. I have never been able to make a 
living by the profession, although I have often thought if I had 
gone to New York, or farther West, the case might have been 
different. In pages 381 and 382 of i Country Life,' and in 
many other parts of the book, you will see what I consider essen- 
tial to the making up and preparation of a landscape gardener, 
and better expressed than I can condense into a letter." Mr. 
C, of Massachusetts, writes : "I have never, known a lady 
to undertake the profession of landscape gardening ; and much 
of the labor which I find it necessary to perform, would be 
impossible for a lady. Still, there is much in which female taste 
would find abundant field for exertion, if the labor could be so 
divided as to make it profitable. My first work on any estate is 
to make an accurate topographical survey of the ground, and 



68 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

draw a plan of it in its natural state, and then proceed to make 
my designs for its arrangement ; and when that is done, if re- 
quired, I undertake the superintendence of the work at the 
ground. A lady would have to employ a surveyor, in the first 
place, and would labor under many disadvantages in directing 
the operations upon grounds ; and, to judge from my own expe- 
rience, the business could not be made profitable under such cir- 
cumstances. Loudon's ' Encyclopaedia of Gardening ' will give the 
best directions I know of for the necessary operations of design- 
ing and executing plans, and Downing's work, with Sargent's 
appendix, comprises enough suggestions, on matters of taste, for 
the use of any person who is possessed of innate natural taste, 
without which I would advise no one to attempt to be a land- 
scape gardener." 

57. Lithographers. The impression for chalk drawings 
is made by delicate manipulations with crayon pencils ; for ink 
drawings, with steel pens and camel-hair brushes. It requires 
one skilled in the use of her pencil, for every stroke of the pencil 
or pen on the stone remains, and cannot be erased. Consequent- 
ly, any defect on the stone is conveyed to every copy of the 
paper. In answer to a letter of inquiry, respecting the time 
necessary for preparation, the writer says : " A person who 
draws well- upon paper would, I should think, with six months' 
practice on stone, become proficient. The process differs little 
from crayon drawing on paper ; and the progress of pupils de- 
pends entirely on their previous attainments in drawing. The 
different kinds of lithography are black, chromo, and gold illumi- 
nated ; also, lithography -combined, or uncombined, with emboss- 
ing. In a report of a British school of design, it is stated that 
the chromo-lithographic class for females " exhibit the commence- 
ment of a series of useful labors." An immense number of cheap 
lithographs are colored by women ; such as are hung in taverns, 
country houses, sailors' homes, servants' rooms, &c. At Mr. C.'s 
establishment, I was told that in France the females are quite as 
successful as the male artists in lithography. He says lithographs 
require to be more highly colored than the colors we see in 
nature. Mr. C. thinks of sending to France for lithographers, 
as he cannot get enough in New York well qualified. A correct 
eye, skilful manipulation, and an appreciation of art are required 
to make one skilful in lithography. Germans excel, because 
they have so much patience. An American would become nerv- 
ous at the slow work that they prosecute with the greatest pleas- 
ure. At Mr. C.'s they have a forewoman, who superintends the 
girls, who are paid by the quantity and kind of work they do. 
He finds that small girls are usually the best workers. Their 



LITHOGRAPHERS. 69 

fingers are more nimble, and they enter into it with more zeal. 
He thinks it best for them to commence at ten or twelve years of 
age. Prospect good for employment in that branch. The coloring 
of all the finest pictures is done by men. It requires some time to 
become sufficiently expert to earn much. Their girls earn from 
$3 to §7 a week. The work requires care, and is wearisome, 
because of sitting long and steadily. Mrs. P., Brooklyn, an 
English lady, learned to draw when eight years old, and studied 
lithography with a distinguished artist of London, who executed 
entirely with his left hand, having lost three fingers on his right 
when he was a child. She has spent twenty-two years in litho- 
graphing- — seventeen of them in this country. She is probably the 
only lady professionally engaged in this business in the United 
States. She has earned almost constantly, I was told, from $12 to 
$30 a week. Lithographing is very lucrative to a skilful artist. 
The remuneration is better than women often receive for their 
handiwork. We believe some women could find employment in 
it, if they were prepared. Mrs. P. excels in architectural draw- 
ing. She thinks one must have the talent of an artist, and great 
practice with the pencil, to succeed. She has given instruction 
to several youths, but never to one of her own sex. One must 
be articled, and pass through a regular course of advancement, 
to follow it advantageously. To an apprentice, after two or three 
years' practice, a small premium is paid. She had one youth to 
learn of her, who, after four years' time, received $7 a week from 
her for his work. She thinks there will be employment to a few 
well qualified. She has always been kept busy. The employ- 
ment is not more unhealthy than any other of a sedentary kind. 
Mr. M. says they have no difficulty in finding enough of crayon 
lithographers, but that there is more lithographic engraving done 
than crayon lithographing. It is done on stone with instruments, 
very much as engraving is done on copper. We have read " that 
an improved method of transferring copies of delicate copper and 
steel plate engravings to the surface of lithographic stone has 
been invented. One copy taken from the steel or copper plate, 
after being transferred to the stone, is capable of producing 3,000 
prints." " Lithography, engraving, and especially engraving on 
wood, would gain in quality by passing from men's hands to the 
hands of women." " Lithographic works are produced which 
rival the finest engravings, and even surpass them, in the expres- 
sion of certain subjects." The first lithography executed in the 
United States was in Boston, 1826. W. & S. used to employ 
girls to color lithographs, but found it did not pay. They paid 
from $4 to $5 a week to women, who did the common part of the 
work. Men did the finer parts, and earned from $12 to $25 a 



70 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

week; but only those who are expert, have artistic taste, and 
understand the business, can earn so much. French lithographs 
are prepared and the coloring done so much cheaper in Europe, 
they have ceased to have it done in New York. B., lithographer, 
Philadelphia, employs many ladies — about twenty — in the house. 
Some associate in companies, and take their work to the house 
of one of their number ; but the greater part are educated women, 
who do not wish it known that they earn money by their labor : 
these carry the plates to their own homes (and even have them 
sent to the fashionable places of resort in summer), so that many 
a fair damsel trips along Chestnut street with a roll of something, 
which seems to be music, but is, in fact, work. The coarse 
handed take no part in this employment. Very few have ever 
attained the highest degree of proficiency in it. The most deli- 
cate work is done by men. Americans have most aptness for 
coloring, although the Germans excel in drawing on stone. 
Women seldom attempt the latter art. It requires long practice 
for girls to excel in coloring. Many grades of skill are required 
to color lithographs, and there is much difficulty in making all 
the copies exactly like the first. Some need a treatment so 
nearly approaching the artistic, that scarcely any one who has 
the skill can be found to give his labor for the price, which is 
necessarily limited. We gained no information as to the amount 
of wages paid to the colorists, but, judging from the price of a 
very beautiful specimen (29 cents), it must be sadly inadequate. 
The scientific societies are the main support of this business. 
The Government, indeed, gives very extensive orders, but there 
is always so much competition to obtain them, that the profit is 
small. Audubon was the greatest encourager of this branch of 
industry. This employment is very desirable in every respect 
for educated women; and although machinery for printing in 
colors is fast encroaching on it, yet it will long offer a field for 
female enterprise. Our informant employs from 100 to 300 
hands, according to the prosperity of the times. A commercial 
crisis affects this as well as all other trades. One of the firm 
of the best lithographic establishment in New York, told me 
they pay their men for drawing on stone from $25 to $30 a week. 
The time required to learn lithography, he thought, would depend 
much on natural talent. A good knowledge of drawing is neces- 
sary. He thought men would soon get over the opposition of 
women entering the business ; but they did not like the restraint 
of working where women are. They would soon become ac- 
customed to it ; and if they were women of the right kind, it 
might be a very beneficial restraint. But, as to that, women 
could do the work at home. Many Germans, well acquainted 



MAP MAKERS. 71 

"with the art, are engaged in crayoning. When they first come 
to this country, they work for lower wages than Americans, but 
after a while learn their value, and ask as much as any one else. 
On account of the low wages for which foreigners can usually be 
had, but few Americans have prepared themselves for this occu- 
pation. But when work is plenty, and the individual industrious 
and skilful, he can earn good wages. Seven eighths of the work 
done for this country is executed in New York. The agent of a 
lithographic company writes: " Drawing on stone could be done 
by women as well as men ; and would open to them a very gen- 
teel and remunerative branch of business. The drawing is now 
done mostly by Germans and Frenchmen ; but ladies who have 
a taste for drawing could soon learn this art. The usual price 
for such artists now is from $12 to $35 per week." Prof. P., of 
New York, gives instruction in lithography, charging $12 per 
quarter of eleven weeks — two lessons per week. Special arrange- 
ments are made with pupils who intend to devote themselves to the 
profession as artists or teachers. A gentleman remarked to me 
that Mr. S., a certain distinguished lithographer of this city 
(New York), would make an excellent teacher in that art. His 
forte is heads. A few strokes from his pencil always give a 
beautiful finish to a piece of work. 

58. JMEap takers. Women could not well travel about 
to obtain information of localities for the making of maps, but 
nearly all the manual labor connected with the business would be 
very suitable for them. Lithographing maps is said to be a profit- 
able branch of the art, and opens a field to competent women. 
Attending the machines for making impressions from the stones 
might very well be performed by women. " In Philadelphia, 
map coloring gives employment to about 175 females, some of 
whom display exquisite taste in this delicate art." There used 
to be 150 girls in New York painting maps, but there are very 
few now. Freedley tells of a map- manufacturing establishment 
in Philadelphia that " turns out 1,200 maps weekly. Connected 
with it are two lithographic printing offices, having twenty presses, 
and coloring rooms, in which 35 females are employed." I was 
told by a lady who had colored maps, that it is trying on the eyes 
and poorly compensated. A map maker said he was always most 
busy in the fall, and then employed from 12 to 16 women. In 
winter he employed about half that number, and they principally 
married women, who have worked for them several years. Mr. 
W. pays two of his best and most experienced lady workers a cer- 
tain sum by the week, and they hire girls and women to work for 
them. The profits of these forewomen, aside from their own 
work, amount to $1.50 to $2 a week the year round. Girls receive 



72 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

$1.50 a week while learning. It requires from six months to one 
year to become proficient. Neatness, a steady hand, knowledge of 
colors, and fineness of touch, are the principal requisites for a 
good map colorist. It requires no artistic knowledge. An ex- 
peditious and experienced hand can earn $1 a day. There is 
at present a need of hands in New York, and a surplus in Phila- 
delphia. All seasons are alike in this business, except as mone- 
tary affairs are concerned. All Mr. W.'s hands work in the 
house. They work about nine hours a day all the year, and 
never take maps home with them, as they are mostly large and 
heavy maps. Map making is mostly confined to Philadelphia 
and New York. None are made in the South and West. There 
is one map publisher reported in Richmond, but he has his 
maps made in New York. Mr. C. gives his maps to a map 
mounter, who employs a girl to sew the bindings on with a sewing 
machine. She is paid at the same rate as any other operator. 
The paper bindings are of course pasted on. Mr. 0. employs one 
girl to paint the outlines, but all the other painting is done by 
stencil plates. Map coloring formerly gave employment to many 
females, but now it is very rare that a map is colored by hand. 
The stencilling process introduced by the Germans has superseded 
it, as they are thereby rendered cheaper. Girls used to earn 
75 cents to $1 a day for painting maps. If girls would learn 
stencilling and work on their own responsibility, they might com- 
pete with the Germans. The process is very simple and soon 
learned. At Mr. H.'s, I saw a large room full of Germans sten- 
cilling. Men earn $8 or $9 a week, and do it faster and better 
than girls, as they have more strength. I saw one girl shading, 
who earned $1 a day. A map manufacturer writes me : "In map 
coloring I am compelled to employ men to a large extent. A curi- 
ous fact is, that respectable middle-aged women, who have been 
coloring for years on piecework, make from $4 to $5 per week; while 
young men, comparatively unpractised, earn at the same prices, say 
from $9 to $10." A manufacturer who employs about 80 females, 
writes : " I employ women in pasting and putting down maps, 
who receive from $3 to $4 a week, being paid by the week, and 
working ten hours a day. The difference in prices of male and 
female labor is about one half. One can learn the business in a few 
weeks ; the only qualifications requisite are sobriety and strength. 
The prospect for work in this branch is good. There is no differ- 
ence in the seasons. Some parts of the work can be done more 
cheaply by women. A supply of hands can always be had. The 
women do their work less carefully than men." A map publisher 
in New Hampshire writes : " I employ 28 women and girls in 
binding, mounting, stitching, and coloring maps, and pay from 



MEDALLISTS — MODELLERS. Y3 

$3 to $6 per week, working eight hours a day. The engraving is 
done by men, who receive from $6 to §20 per week. Women's 
labor can be learned in a few weeks, and is not so hard or difficult 
as men's. Engravers spend three years learning. I employ 
women to color, because they have better taste than men. Draught- 
ing surveys, engraving, and lithographing have never been at- 
tempted by women. New York is preferable as a locality." A 
gentleman in Boston writes : " We employ from four to eight 
women in our map-mounting department. They could not be 
employed in any other branch, which is varnishing and polishing 
all kinds of hard wood. There are a large number employed 
in New York, Philadelphia, and Buffalo. Pay varies from $3 
to 85 per week— ten hours a day. We employ no men in this 
branch. There is something new to learn every day. Business 
is the same all the year. We pay our girls nothing while learn- 
ing. " A lithographer in Boston writes : " I employ women to 
color maps and pictures, paying by the piece, the workers earn- 
ing from $3 to $6 per week. The employment is not unhealthy." 

59. BSedallists. "Beatrice Hamerani worked at me- 
dallions, and in 1700 elaborated a large medallion of Pope Inno- 
cent XII., highly praised by Goethe." " Toward the end of the 
seveoteenth century we hear of Madame Kavemann, who executed 
a beautiful medal, an exquisite specimen of cutting." In the 
school of design in New York, we saw two very creditable me- 
dallions, executed by one of the members of the school. 

60. Modellers. An ornamental designer and modeller 
writes me : " In England I attended my lady pupils at their own 
residences, except one to whom I gave instruction at my resi- 
dence. One was the daughter of the Lord Mayor of the city, 
another the daughter-in-law of the Earl of H. Very few ladies 
learn any of the higher branches of art, except those that do so 
for recreation. A person that has some skill in drawing would, 
without the slightest doubt, soon acquire a knowledge of this 
beautiful art. Some persons have a natural gift for modelling, 
while others would not learn it with all the cultivation arising 
from education and good society. Probably the best source of 
employment in New York would be to design and model for the 
silversmiths — such as Ball & Black, Tiffany, &c. One of the 
most fertile departments in Europe to lady modellers is not car- 
ried on to any extent in this country — the making of fine pottery. 
The fingers, of course, must be soiled in modelling; but such an 
inconvenience is trifling compared with the pleasure of forming 
fruit, flowers, and foliage, or modelling the medallions of friends." 
The modelling of gas fixtures might afford employment to a small 
number of qualified women. We know of one establishment in 

4 



74 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Philadelphia where part of the designing for fixtures, lamps, and 
chandeliers, is done by a lady, and all the copying done for illus- 
trated catalogues of those which are finished. She receives $6 a 
week, and goes about 9 o'clock a. m. and remains until 4 p. m. 
Mr P., at his school of art in New York, has a very large col- 
lection of casts. He gives instruction to boys and young men in 
modelling and drawing, charging 25 cents a lesson of 3 hours in 
the day or 2 in the evening. They are instructed in classes. 
Some of his casts are gigantic. In one of his rooms is a beauti- 
ful, but small model, in wax, for $300, representing a hunting 
scene. We have been told that some ladies in Germany model 
wax patterns for the ornamental work on china. Few tools are 
used by a modeller — the only ones are for the sharp and delicate 
parts that cannot be formed by the fingers. As clay does not 
shrink uniformly in drying it is moulded before drying in plaster 
of Paris, and a cast of the same material taken from that, which 
serves as a model for the workman. Some artists model in wax. 
Women might be employed in modelling ornamental and scroll 
work for brass founderies, &c, and get good wages. 

61. Modellers of Wax Figures. Catharine Questier, 
who lived in Amsterdam about 200 years ago, besides possessing 
many other accomplishments, was a modeller in wax. Joanna 
Sabina Preu, who lived in Germany not long after, was noted in 
the same way. A daughter of a Danish king also modelled in 
wax. " Professor Anna Manzalius, an Italian lady, modelled ex- 
cellent portraits in the beginning of the eighteenth century." In 
England, in the early part of the eighteenth century, Mrs. Sa- 
more modelled figures and historical groups in wax. Mrs. Pa- 
tience Wright, born in Bordentown, New Jersey, 1725, made a 
great many likenesses in wax. Some were full length and some 
were busts. They were mostly of the statesmen that were con- 
spicuous in the American colonies at that time — yet some were 
of Englishmen, as she resided in London, after she became a 
widow, and supported her family by her handiwork, Her daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Piatt, modelled in wax in New York in 1787. I saw a 
maker of wax figures who said he had supported his family by his 
work, and thought a few others might make a living at it. One 
must be able to draw a model before undertaking wax figures. 
It requires good perceptive powers, ability to distinguish colors, 
and a peculiar taste. One must be able to work from life, and 
it is well to know how to do so from pictures. Mr. G., interest- 
ed in Barnum's museum, told me that it was impossible to get 
such wax figures made in this country as they want. He spoke of 
the miserable imitations that are made, and thought a person well 
qualified would be patronized. Most of the groups in Barnum's 



MINERAL LABELLERS AND ARRANGERS. ?5 

museum were made by Mrs. Pelby, of Boston. Mr. Barnum 
wrote to Mr. Tussaud, whose mother made those so famous in 
London (and who is living now), to know if he would instruct 
some one to send to America ; but he is not willing to give any 
one instruction. He employs persons to make the different parts; 
one set of workers make the bodies, another the heads, another 
the feet, &c. The world-famed group of his mother, Madame 1 
Tussaud, was first opened in Paris about 1770. After being 
exhibited in the large towns of Great Britain, it was taken to 
London, where it still remains. The figures are so life-like that 
now and then one is mistaken for a living person, while a person 
is as often mistaken in the group for one of the figures. More 
than forty persons are kept in charge of the exhibition. 

62. Mineral Labellers and Arrangers. A lady 
could not easily make collections of minerals, but she might find 
it an absorbing occupation to arrange and label them. Few la- 
dies in our country have given any study to mineralogy, and very 
few would be competent to form cabinets. Yet, for those that 
are, we doubt not employment of that kind could be found. The 
individual wealth of our country has not been sufficient to enable 
many to make extensive collections. The most that exist are 
connected with universities and other institutions of learning. 
They have been collected at different times — in fact, mostly form- 
ed by single specimens, added now and then. Individual collec- 
tions have been formed in the same way. Individuals add to 
the cabinets of their friends, as they have it in their power. The 
most extensive collections in the United States are at the Patent 
Office, Washington, and in the National Academy of Science, 
Philadelphia. Mr. H., a mineralogist from Berlin, says: " In 
Berne, Switzerland, a man and his wife are mineralogists. On 
the husband's death the wife will continue the business.'' It must 
require many years' study and an extensive knowledge of chem- 
istry to become a superior mineralogist. I would think consid- 
erable time and capital were requisite for a mineralogist to estab- 
lish himself. Mr. H. makes exchanges of minerals for others, 
receiving, I suppose, a commission for doing so. A geologist 
writes me : " No women are employed in my business. It re- 
quires one half of a lifetime to become fitted for the duties of a 
geologist. A knowledge of engineering, and most of the natural 
sciences, is needed. Draughting in the office is the only part 
suitable for women." 

68. Musicians. Madame Romeau says: "Few women 
have been engaged in musical compositions, and they have rarely 
undertaken important works. In painting and literature one is 
pre-occupied only with the work of the author. In music, it re- 



76 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

quires the cooperation of two persons — the composer, and the 
performer. Books and paintings act upon ns without any inter- 
mediate objects, while the piece of the composer, to be under- 
stood, needs the flow of harmony noted on the paper in hiero- 
glyphic signs, and must escape under the fingers from the instru- 
ment. It is necessary to animate the inert matter — to make it 
yield to the wish of the performer and reproduce the inspirations 
of the composer. Few women compose songs. A musician 
leads a different life from an artist, who lives in her studio and 
has few expenses. A musician must face the crowd, and hear its 
dissatisfaction, and smile at its applause. A cantatrice, or song- 
stress, often travels from town to town like an actress.' 7 Some 
persons think none of the arts can be purely religious except mu- 
sic. " Mozart in music, and Raphael in colors, have taught us 
the spiritual ministry of the senses." A comparatively small 
quantity of music has been composed in the United States. The 
study of a lifetime is bestowed by very few on music. Some 
American ladies have gone to Europe to perfect their musical 
taste, and a few have acquired distinction. With musicians, as 
with vocalists — those who, in this country, have reaped the great- 
est profits in the shortest time were foreigners. Some were pia- 
nists, some flutists, some violinists — some one thing, and some 
another. The composition of music for soirees, fancy balls, 
masquerades, tableaux vivants, private theatricals, operas, dra- 
mas, musical farces, ballets, &c, might occupy all the spare time 
of musicians capable of composing. There is a circulating libra- 
ry in London of 42,000 volumes. There is, also, one in New 
York and one in Brooklyn. Subscribers to the one in Brooklyn 
pay in advance for one year $12, with the privilege of selecting 
from the catalogue $6 worth of music at the termination of the 
subscription ; for six months, $6 ; for three months, $3 ; for a 
single piece worth less than $1, 6 cents per week; less than $2, 
9 cents per week. Mr. Gr. thinks a lady can never become a 
good violinist, because it requires great strength in the right arm. 
The muscles of violinists are as rigid as a blacksmith's. I have 
heard that occasionally a pianist acquires such strength in his 
hands that he could almost prostrate you with one of his fingers. 
A gentleman told me, ladies could not become superior organists; 
that they cannot have sufficient power developed. It requires 
much strength of hands and feet. He remarked, the organist, at 
the church he attended, was a lady, but made no comments on 
her qualifications. I have known two lady organists, who were 
considered superior performers, and received as good salaries as 
gentlemen would have done. One received $500 for playing 
twice on Sabbath. On week days she gave instruction. I was 



MUSIC ENGRAVERS AND FOLDERS. 77 

told that she supported her whole family for years by her musi- 
cal talents, and laid by money with which she purchased a com- 
fortable dwelling in a city in New York State. The salaries of 
organists are small considering the amount of talent and practice 
required ; but most organists teach music, or stand in music stores, 
or act as agents for manufacturers of musical instruments. " In 
the summer of 1860, among the Marblehead band of female shoe 
strikers in the procession at Lynn, Mass., was Miss Margaret 
Hammond, fifteen years old, who beat the drum in martial style 
the whole line of march." " In Ohio they have a lady drummer, 
who has received a diploma for her skill. Her name is Minerva 
Patterson, a daughter of Major Elisha Patterson, a wealthy far- 
mer of Jersey, Licking Co." The French papers have given 
some insight to the prices paid great musicians, Malibran re- 
ceived in London, for every performance at Drury Lane, $750 ; 
Lablache, for singing twice, $750, and for a single lesson to 
Queen Victoria, $200. At a soiree in London Grisi received 
$1,200. Paganini charged $100 a lesson. " Herz and Thal- 
berg each made about $50,000 in this country." There is a fe- 
male musical society in London which gives concerts for benevo- 
lent objects. 

64, Music Bngravers and Polders. Mr. L. engraves 
and prints music, and employs two ladies to fold it. There are 
but few music engravers. The smaller the number of persons in 
any one kind of business the higher the prices they can command. 
A lady in New Orleans engraves, whose husband is a music 
printer. It would require but two or three years to learn it. 
Some ingenuity, a knowledge of the value of notes in music, and 
judgment in the arrangement of them are necessary to make an 
engraver. In New Orleans, eight months are usually considered 
a year, I believe, in business arrangements. At a music engrav- 
er's the young man told me that he never heard of a woman en- 
graving music in this country, but he knows that some do in 
Paris. The work they turn out, he added, is not good ; it will 
not wear, because women have not sufficient strength in the wrist 
to engrave as deeply as a man. A person who engraves plates 
for music can earn from $3 to $5 a day. German work is con- 
sidered the best, because the quality of the ink used is better. 
Music engraving is divided into two distinct branches — one is let- 
tering and engraving the title page — the other is engraving the 
notes. No steam machinery has ever been invented for printing 
music, because the ink must all be put on the way the work is 
done. Music is one of the first things dispensed with in hard times. 

65. Opera Performers. The first opera of modern 
times was performed about the close of the fifteenth century. At 



78 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

the first introduction of the opera into France and England, it was 
much ridiculed by wits and critics. Voltaire, however, and 
others, came to its rescue, and with what success may be known, 
when it is acknowledged to be one of the favorite amusements 
of the fashionable world. The want of adaptedness of the opera to 
the English language has to a great extent excluded successful 
efforts at translation. Yet some operas have of late years been 
performed in English. " In Paris, the Italian opera is patro- 
nized by the Government, as a school of vocal music ; and the 
managers are careful to maintain a complete and skilful compa- 
ny." In an opera, the music is the most important part, while 
at the theatre the music is subordinate to the play. The orches- 
tra in some parts of the opera accompanies, and, in others, seems 
to respond to the sentiments of the piece. The operatic perform- 
ance is not so warm, so impassioned, so abandoned, as that of the 
theatre. The trilling and sudden starting, so common in operas, 
is rather too artificial to please the unsophisticated. A conver- 
sational style is seldom used, but the words are expressed in a 
recitative style that is graceful and effective. In G-ermany, how- 
ever, dialogue has been introduced. Good imitative powers are 
essential to success. The noble talent of music has been dese- 
crated, in some operas, by the impure thoughts and language ex- 
pressed. In the United States probably not more than thirty, out 
of the entire audience of several hundred, sufficiently understand 
the Italian, to follow the play without considerable effort ; but it 
is so much of a pantomimic character that much is gained by the 
sense of sight. Much of the zest and interest are lost to those 
who are indifferent to the accessories. On this account, we sup- 
pose it can never become a favorite amusement with the general- 
ity of people. The French papers give some curious statements 
in regard to the salaries paid to great musical artists We learn 
that Hummel left a fortune of $75,000, and twenty-six diamond 
rings, thirty-four snuff boxes, and one hundred and fourteen 
watches, which had been presented to him at various times. In 
modern days musicians are quite as extravagantly paid. Alboni 
and Mario get $400 every night they sing ; Tamberlik, every 
time he sings a certain high note, demands $500 ; Madame 
Gazzaniga was paid 1500 a night recently in Philadelphia ; 
Lagrange, at Eio Janeiro, is now receiving a princely salary ; 
and Piccolomini cost her manager over $5,000 a month ; and these 
prices are said to be moderate, compared with those often paid in 
Europe to distinguished musical artists. At the opera house in 
Paris, for the present season, Mr. Colzado, the manager, pays as 
follows: to Tamberlik, for seventeen representations, $8,000; 
Alboni, $2,200 for seven representations ; Mario, $15,000 for a 



PAINTERS. 79 

season of five months ; Grisi, $5,000 for two months ; Maclarne 
Perer, $14,000 for the season ; the Grazioni brothers, $15,400 ; 
Corsi, a baritone, $4,000 ; Galvani, $3,600 ; Nantin Didere, 
$4,000; Teeehini, $3,600; Mile, de Ruda, $3,400. The chorus 
and orchestra cost for the season $17,600. , " Parodi, the 
American prima donna, receives no less than $30,000 per annum, 
a larger salary than that paid to the President of the United 
States." " Miss Hensler, the American prima donna, has been 
engaged by the manager of La Scala for fifteen months, at the 
rate of $170 a month." " Sophie Curveth receives $2,500 a 
month, for eight representations ; for every representation be- 
yond eight in the month, $300 more." 

66. Painters. " Less prejudice exists against artists than 
teachers in France. They have privileges that teachers have 
not. Painting is considered the most desirable profession by 
parents for their daughters. The girl begins early in life to fit 
herself for her profession. The work is less severe than that of 
an author. Painting does not require such close application of 
mind, nor is it necessary to spend so much time in solitude, nor 
are the expense and anxiety so great as that of authorship. Gra- 
tuitous schools of art exist in Paris, where instruction is given 
principally in perspective. Most students prosecute the art in 
studios, paying from $4 to $6 a month. Most of them spend the 
whole day in the studios, from eight in the morning until six in 
the evening. The artist that instructs them visits the scholars 
only two or three times a week. The studio is a sort of mutual 
school, where pupils teach each other ; they are of all ages. All 
conditions of society are represented. Three kinds of painting are 
done by them — face or portrait, landscape, and flowers. Most 
of the girls of the higher classes prefer landscape. Female artists 
compete with men, and wear their hair short. Few women like 
the physical fatigue of a painter's life. There is not the same 
play for coquetry in artists, as in singers or actors. It requires 
great perseverance for a female artist to acquire firmness of exe- 
cution ; she does not possess it to the same extent as man. Some 
artists are willing merely to copy paintings, paint portraits, and 
give lessons. The school of landscape painting is one well fitted 
for young and original talent. Women succeed in painting 
portraits ; also, in painting flowers and fruit ; very few have tried 
historical paintings." Painting is certainly a profitable employ- 
ment for a lady artist of superior ability, if she can have enough 
to do. Miss F., New York, established a life school for lady 
artists. One subject is used at a time ; the classes are limited — 
two classes — eight or ten pupils in each. Those that need in- 
struction will pay $12 for twenty-two lessons ; those without in- 



80 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

struc^tion, $6. There will be two sittings a week, of from three to 
four hoars. A person of sensitive, nervous type, susceptible to 
every impression of a pleasant kind, is most likely to succeed as 
an artist. Mr. B. Peale told me that many ladies in Europe 
paint portraits. He considered it a higher style than landscape, 
or still life. He thinks painting itself not injurious to the health. 
The turpentine used is sanitary, and the white lead is delete- 
rious only when taken into the lungs. What is inhaled in breath- 
ing can do no harm. Mr. Peale thought that the principal reason 
of artists being so poor in health, is because of their long and 
close confinement indoors. In painting the first coats are often 
applied by an assistant, employed by the artist; and in some 
cases, by the students of the artists. Miss Merrifield, of England, 
has written a work on the art of painting. A number of ladies in 
England, and in the United States, are winning a reputation as 
artists. The prospect to lady artists in the United States is 
very encouraging. Ladies are allowed the privilege, on proper 
application, to copy paintings in the Academy of Fine Arts, 
Philadelphia, the Diisseldorf, and the Bryant galleries, New York. 
According to the census of 1850, there were 2,093 male artists; 
but there are said to be not more than 600 or 700 superior 
artists in the United States. The patronage the best receive is 
such as to keep them well employed. A meagre support and a 
long life of labor are necessary to establish a reputation as an 
artist, even to one that has talent. But the way in which most 
of our first-class artists live, that are prudent and steady in their 
habits, and possess any business qualifications, contradicts the 
opinion, quite common, that an artist's life must always be one of 
self denial and poverty. We think artists fare as well as most 
people, and we do think it a life very inviting to the young 
ladies of our country. Those that have the time, the means, and 
the talents, will find it an absorbing, a fascinating employment. 
Women succeed best in painting pictures of their own sex, and 
of children. The more tender and delicate organizations are 
best suited to their talents. Most of our artists live in the 
metropolis, New York; the Western country is too new and 
crude. There are materials enough, but not much appreciation 
of talent. Besides there is less wealth, and another thing is, that 
artists must keep themselves where mention will now and then be 
made of their pictures, to bring them into notice, and where the 
most ready sale will be found for them. During the last few 
years a taste has been developed in St. Louis, that promises some 
golden fruit. A gallery of paintings has lately been opened 
there. Why is it that a talent for painting and poetry is 
so often combined? Is it that the quiet, contemplative state 



PAINTEES. 81 

that produces poetical inspirations also favors the visible expres- 
sion of beautiful thoughts ? A poet painter is more frequently 
to be seen than a poet musician. One, I suppose, of a quick, 
lively disposition, and very impressible, might be more likely to 
possess musical talent than one of a quiet, thoughtful nature. 
But genius is not fettered by temperament. There is a society 
of female artists in London ; the first public exhibition of their 
paintings took place in June, 1857. It is managed by a com- 
mittee of eight ladies, and bound by twenty-three articles. A 
portrait painter writes : " The artist requires a high, well-de- 
veloped anterior brain, a healthy body; and a brain and body 
well regulated and balanced ; a love of the beautiful that inspires 
the character with patience and indomitable perseverance, and a 
contempt for applause ; for c art is long,' and, unless one is 
willing to ' scorn delights and live laborious days/ he can never 
meet with real success. If women can attain to excellence as 
artists, they can command the same remuneration as men receive. 
Art knows no sex." A professional artist remarked to me : 
" Amateur painters never attain excellency, because it requires 
not only talent, but constant application." I think if there is 
anything that should have its full value, it is a painting, because 
of the patience and perseverance necessary for an artist to excel, 
and the long and costly preparation requisite. It commands, 
too, a certain style of talent that many do not possess. In addi- 
tion to this, those who can afford to buy paintings are those who 
can afford to pay a good price. 

67. Animals, We know of no artist in this country whose 
talents have been devoted to the painting of animals, and of but 
one lady, in any country, that has distinguished herself in that 
line — the far famed Rosa Bonheur. 

68. Banners. We saw an ornamental sign painter deco- 
rating a large flag. Stars are painted on the silk, and then sized 
and gilt. The flag was stretched on a frame like a piece of 
tapestry, but upright like an easel. Mr. M. had never known 
of any women being employed in the trade. He decorated ban- 
ners for processions, political campaigns, &c. This is evidently 
a field for female industry. 

69. Crayon and Pastel. Crayon drawing seems to 
have been much in vogue in Italy in the seventeenth century ; and 
we read of an Italian lady, as far back as 1700, devoting her time 
to pastel painting. The soft, light, dreamy effect given by the 
use of pastels, peculiarly fit the style for the portraits of ladies and 
children. Mrs. Dassel, of New York, was noted for her excellency 
in the use of pastels. Mrs. Hildreth, of Boston, is very success- 
ful in her crayon portraits. She charges from $30 to $40 a head. 



82 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Mrs. M. A. Johnson, of Massachusetts, has spent some years 
working in crayon. " Her indefatigable patience in the execution 
of details, the fidelity of her likenesses, and the delicate perfec- 
tion of finish in her pictures, are remarkable." Miss Clark re- 
ceived $20, and over, for crayon portraits in Boston, a few years 
ago. Before Miss Stebbins, of New York, became a sculptor, she 
drew crayon portraits, charging $50 per head. Her execution 
was said to be clear and forcible. 

70. Flowers and Fruit. During the latter part of the 
eighteenth and the first half of the present century, a number of lady 
artists have distinguished themselves in flower painting. During 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a few devoted themselves 
to it in Holland, Germany, Denmark, and France. For a few years 
past some American ladies have turned their attention to flower 
painting with marked success. A number in England have 
also obtained distinction. 

71. Fresco. The wife of an artist told me her husband 
knew of a fresco painter in England, whose daughter would 
assist him when he was hurried. But the lady thought work- 
ing with men was objectionable. I heard of a young lady in 
New York, who assisted her father, by filling up the outlines, 
as he drew them on side walls. Mrs. Ellet states that Angelica 
Kauffman assisted her father in the interior decoration of a 
church, in Schwarzenberg. She painted, in fresco, the figures 
of the Twelve Apostles. Her success in an undertaking so 
difficult excited considerable attention. Mrs. N., wife of a fresco 
painter, thought the work unfit for women, because they would 
be compelled to work with men, and stand on platforms to work 
on ceilings ; consequently are liable to exposure of person. They 
might paint the side walls, and let men paint the ceilings. 

72. Historical. But few ladies have devoted themselves 
to historical painting. The most lived during the latter part of 
the last century, and the commencement of the present. Catarina 
Vieira painted several church pictures, after the designs of her 
brother. 

73. Landscape. In the past century Holland gave to the 
world the largest number of female landscape painters. Amer- 
ica and England bear away the palm for the present century. 
American scenery opens as wide a scope for the talent of the 

landscape painter as any on the globe. Mrs. , one of the 

first landscape painters of our country, thinks landscape requires 
more care and talent than portrait painting, but the latter pays 
best. She says there are some ladies in Boston, who are very 
good landscape painters. She thinks it would be very difficult 
for a young artist to become established in New York, without 



PAINTERS. 83 

influential connections, and the means to keep ner until she does 
become established ; but would be more likely to succeed in 
cities in the South and West. She thinks there are good openings 
in Baltimore, for artists of every kind. She says art is much 
more encouraged in the United States during the last few years, 
and a good artist need not fear starving. The artists of New 
York have three receptions during the year. The object is to 
make known their paintings, with a view to selling. At the 
last annual sale of pictures for the New York Artists' Fund, 
$2,000 were received. Some artists copy a landscape exactly as 
they see it ; some select the most beautiful parts of different 
landscapes, and combine them; and a few draw entirely from 
imagination. Good painters of scenes for theatres, I have been 
told, often receive from $25 to $40 per week. 

74. KEarine, Some very good marine views have been 
executed in this country, but none by ladies. 

75. Miniature Painters. "We may run back as far 
as the twelfth century, and find a few miniature painters among the 
fair sex. Margaretta von Eyck devoted most of her time to 
painting miniatures, in the fifteenth century. In the seventeenth 
century, an Italian lady of Palermo distinguished herself as a 
painter in oils. Mrs. Wright, an English miniature painter, 
died in 1802 ; and Maria Conway was a noted miniature 
painter, living in London, who died in 1821. In the seventeenth 
century, Maria Rieger was employed to paint miniatures in the 
aristocratic circles of Germany. In the same century, a Swiss 
lady, Anna Wossar, began at the early age of thirteen to win 
a name in the same branch of painting. In the same century, 
almost every country in Europe gave birth to one." Mad. Gold- 
beck, of English birth ; Mrs. Hill, of Boston; Miss C. Denning, 
of Plattsburg; Miss Anne Hall and Miss O'Hara, in New York, 
are the principal miniature painters in the United States. It 
was reported that Miss H. occasionally received as high as $500 
for a miniature. Mrs. Hill received from $75 to $100 for a 
miniature. The popularity of photographs has caused many 
portrait and miniature painters to devote themselves to that 
branch of art. Some artists succeed in giving an ideal, spirituel 
beauty, truly astonishing. I think it is more observable in 
miniatures on ivory than any other style. Mr. W. writes : " In 
the department of miniature painting women find profitable em- 
ployment and are ofttimes very expert at the work. I know a 
lady in Washington who paints very beautiful miniatures, for 
which she receives from $10 to $15. This is very nearly the 
same rate paid to men. Woman's delicate sense of touch and 



84 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

facility of expression make it a branch for which she is especially 
fitted." 

76. Panoramas ? we suppose, have pretty well paid their 
way, particularly the first that were exhibited ; but we know 
not that any lady has ever engaged in this branch of painting. 
Mr. D., a scenic and panoramic artist, says the " decorative work- 
shops" of Paris are 250 feet long, and 50 feet wide. The cloth 
for panoramas is laid on the floor, and the paint then applied, 
as it would run if hung up. There are galleries around the 
walls, some distance above, from which the artist may judge of 
the effect of his painting. Many dioramas are used, and might 
be colored by ladies. Panoramas have not been so common 
since Banvard painted his. Painting them does not always pay for 
the trouble and expense. It requires a certain order of talent 
for painting panoramas, and probably as high an order as any 
other. 

77. Portrait. " Lala, though not a native of Home, 
exercised her profession in that city during the youth of Marcus 
Varo, painting portraits of women. Her pictures were better 
paid for than those of any other painter of her time. Portrait 
and character drawing have ever exercised the talents of the first- 
class artists." Mary Beale was a celebrated portrait painter, 
who lived in the reign of Charles II. ; and Anna Killigrew 
painted the portraits of James II. and his queen. An artist 
told me that it requires the most intense mental application to 
bring out a variety in the expression of the countenances of some 
sitters, and difficult to seize the most happy expression. An 
ambrotype copy should be kept for the colorist to look at occa- 
sionally, while progressing with his work. He thinks seven 
hours a day enough for an artist, when his mind is exercised with 
his work. After so long an application, he might turn his atten- 
tion advantageously to some style of painting more mechanical 
in its nature, that will be an occupation to his body and a relief 
to his mind. A portrait painter writes me in answer to some 
questions: " The artist's labor cannot well be intrusted to an- 
other. In France there are female portrait painters, who are 
said to execute such works with more delicacy and profit than 
men. The employment is not unhealthy, unless the laborer con- 
fines herself too long in a poorly ventilated room. Women are 
paid by the piece, when employed by artists. I would say, in 
general terms, why women are not better paid is owing, doubt- 
less, to a very foolish idea that, in all respects, they are not so 
reliable. Perhaps a remnant of a more barbarous period has 
something to do with it. In inferior conditions of society women 
are always looked upon as inferior creatures. Women have done 



PAINTERS. 85 

great things in art. See the career of Eosa Bonheur, Angelica 
Kauffman, Miss Sharp, of London, and, in our own country, Mrs. 
L. M. Spencer and Miss Hosiner." Some people are gifted with 
a love for, and success in, one style, and some in another. Our 
nation, composed as it is of representatives from all lands, will 
give fair play to the best powers of the portrait painter. Miss 
(x. thinks a lady of talent, by close application, with an extensive 
respectable connection, can establish herself in New York as an 
artist, and earn a livelihood by the products of her pencil. She 
charges as much for a crayon portrait as for one in oil. She suc- 
ceeds best in crayons. $60 is her price for a large portrait; $10 
or $15 more, with hands. " Mademoiselle Bosee, born in Leyden, 
in 1632, deserves a place among eminent artists for the singularity 
of her talents. Instead of using colors, with oil or gum, she used 
silk for the delicate shading. It can hardly be understood how 
she managed to apply the fibres, and to imitate the flesh tints, 
blending and mellowing them so admirably. She thus painted 
portraits, as well as landscapes and architecture." 

78. Water Colors. Much improvement has taken place 
in this style of painting during the last few years. Fanny Gor- 
beaux is mentioned as a superior English painter in water colors, 
of the present century. 

79. Painters of Dial Plates. This is rather an ar- 
tistic employment, but poorly paid. All the clock faces used in 
the East are said to be painted by women. Men would not do it 
for the prices that are paid. In Boston is a large factory where 
a number of girls are employed in painting hard dial plates — 
that is, enamelled. I saw a Swiss lady in New York who paints 
silver-faced dial plates. She and a gentleman in Hoboken (she 
told me) are the only persons in this country who paint that 
style. The drying of hard dial plates she thought to be bad on 
the health, because of the great heat to which a person is ex- 
posed in placing the enamel in the furnace, and attending to it 
while there. Mixing the enamel could be done by women. When 
learning to paint dial plates in Switzerland, she paid $3 a week 
for instruction and board, but for a sleeping room separately. 

83. Picture Restorers. E. says he has been thirty years 
engaged in restoring paintings and engravings. He thinks it is 
more of a natural gift than anything else. He has made money 
by it. His sons, who have been ten years employed as draughts- 
men, cannot succeed, with all the instruction he has given them. 
To succeed requires the talents and experience of an artist. He 
never adds paint when any is left, but merely restores it. If it 
is gone, he supplies it. B. says, restoring paintings is a work of 
all time. The prospect of a lady succeeding is poor. She can- 



86 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

not use the heavy iron (twenty-five pounds) necessary for iron- 
ing the lining on the picture. (But that part is merely mechan- 
ical work, and can be done by a man.) The greatest aim with 
most restorers is to imitate the old masters. Mrs. C, whose 
husband is a picture liner, says there is a great wear and tear of 
mind in that business. A restorer may injure a picture, and 
have it thrown upon his hands, and have to pay ten times its 
value. Restoring is the most difficult, lining the most laborious. 
She never heard of any one being taught. I should think a 
restorer would find it desirable, if not essential, to visit the gal- 
leries of Europe, and study the works of the old masters. The 
business requires considerable artistic taste and knowledge, but, 
in our large cities, may after a while present a field for qualified 
women. 

81. Piano Tuners. I think a piano tuner might form a 
class of ladies, and give instruction in the art. $1 is the usual 
price for tuning a piano in the city. One should have an acute 
sense of hearing, to succeed ; and he should commence early to 
cultivate that sense. It is very necessary to know how to make 
a nice discrimination of sounds. Practice in that is best gained 
in a piano factory. Some could learn the principles in half a 
day. More depends on practice, and a native talent for it, than 
anything else. At Mr. W.'s is a very superior tuner, and he 
has been at it but a few months. It requires strength of wrist, 
and a rather long arm. The change of posture and strain on the 
back is considerable. There is not one good tuner in fifty. Mr. 
W. thinks a lady might be a tuner. He says it is not necessary 
that a person should know how to play on an instrument, but it 
is better. A tuner in his factory receives $3 a day. Regulating 
is done by the touch, tuning by the ear. If a lady could obtain 
the tuning of the pianos of her friends, they might speak to others, 
and in that way she might succeed in obtaining sufficient custom 
to make a very comfortable support. It might also bring out 
any musical talent the individual possesses. While piano tuners 
are learning, if they practise long at a time, they often experience 
a confusion of sounds, and are not able to distinguish correctly. 
I was told by another manufacturer, it is not at all necessary to 
be a player to make a good tuner, as the two are entirely distinct. 
There is a great difference in the abilities of tuners. There is 
much difference naturally in the sense of hearing in different in- 
dividuals : there is much from training, there is much from the 
aptness of a pupil, and in the application. When they take a 
boy as an apprentice, they keep him at first to sweep the room, 
and go errands, and give him instruction, probably an hour at a 
time, in tuning. Longer time would confuse a learner. They 



PLASTEK STATUARY. 87 

have had a tuner for three }^ears, that they can now send to tune 
pianos for concerts ; hut, a year ago, they could not. Two piano 
tuners (women) are mentioned in the census of Great Britain. 
Mr. W. had two or three ladies to learn piano tuning in his 
factory. They were music teachers, living in villages and the 
country, who could not engage a tuner oftener than once in two 
or three months, when the tuner would come around. He thinks 
ladies could not make very good tuners, because it requires great 
strength in the hand or wrist, and complete control of the key ; for 
if the key is turned ever so slightly more than it should be, the 
wire will break. A manufacturer of musical instruments writes : 
" I think women could be placed in a situation profitable to them- 
selves and the community by learning to tune pianos and melo- 
deons, which I believe they have the skill and capacity to do. 
They would also find it profitable, in some places, to instruct ju- 
venile classes of both sexes in sacred music." 

82, Plaster Statuary. The few women in this country 
who work in plaster of Paris, are, as far as we know, natives of 
other countries. There is an old Italian woman in Baltimore 
who makes and sells works in plaster. Casts are sometimes 
taken by women, but rarely. Casts of living persons are taken 
by having the individual breathe through iron tubes placed in 
the nostrils. Casts are also taken from reliefs, statues, and 
models. They require less care than the first mentioned. Fruit 
is imitated in this material, and colored exactly like the original. 
I saw a case that had been prepared by a lady for the rooms of 
the American Institute, New York. The librarian thought seve- 
ral collections might be disposed of to agricultural societies and 
farmers. It would pay well, and take but little time to learn. 
It would require a nice discernment of colors and shades, and 
neat, careful workmanship. In Brooklyn, I was told by a boy, 
that did not look to be more than 14 or 15 years of age, that he 
had been working in plaster of Paris for three years. His was the 
architectural branch. The first year he received $1.50 per 
week; next year, $2; and the next, $3. He thinks a woman 
could do any of the work. The moulds for some parts are made 
of wax and rosin ; some of sulphur, and some of plaster of Paris. 
The moulds are tied together, and the liquid plaster poured in. 
It hardens in half an hour. Mr. W., a plaster of Paris worker, 
says the whole of the work could be done by women. Modelling 
requires practice in drawing, and a knowledge of geometrical 
figures. Inventive talent finds a ready field for exercise. A 
good moulder is paid $2.50 a day. The study of architectural 
ornaments and books much facilitates the advancement of the art. 
Modelling and casting are distinct branches. Most employers pay 



$5 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

boys thirty-seven cents a day for casting; but to learn modelling, 
it is customary for the learner to pay a premium. Another maker 
of house ornaments said modelling could be learned in six months, 
and when a person has learned, he can earn from $3 to $5 a day 
of ten hours. One must know how to draw in order to model. 
Another proprietor told me he had thought of employing girls to 
break off the edges of architectural ornaments. They now have 
boys, and pay from $3 to $9 per week. Modellers can earn $2, 
$2.50, and $3 per day. He paid $2.50 a day, for a year, to 
one man. At a large store for the sale of plaster of Paris articles 
in New York, the proprietor, a gentlemanly Italian, said he 
would be willing to give instruction to a class of ladies in model- 
ling, moulding, casting, and polishing. He would charge $2 for 
two hours' instruction, and thinks, after a lesson every day for three 
months, and some practice in the intervals, his pupils would have 
no difficulty in prosecuting the work alone. It soils the clothes 
very much. His daughter learned it, but prefers embroidery. 
One of the Pisani brothers told me that in Italy and Paris 
women work at the business. Much ornamental work is executed 
in alabaster, spar, composition, and plaster of Paris. None of 
them are unfit for women. A more desirable occupation, with 
the exception of its want of cleanliness, a woman could not en- 
gage in, than plaster of Paris modelling. An Italian plaster 
image maker in Boston writes me : " We employ about 60 women. 
Women are employed at this business in Florence, Rome, and 
Milan. I get about $10 per day, and pay women $3 per day, 
working ten hours. I pay both by the piece and by the day. 
As a general thing, we pay men better than women. It requires 
some genius and a lifetime to learn the business. The prospects 
for employment are good in Boston, and there is a pretty lively 
demand for hands. All the women I employ are Italians. 
Women are decidedly superior workers. The business can be 
carried on in any part of the United States. Women might be 
employed in taking casts from the dead, if they have sufficient 
nerve. I have a peculiar fancy for this branch of the work, and 
do not consider it unhealthy.' 5 

83. Painters of Plates for Books. Hundreds of 
thousands of plates are annually colored in London, and some in 
this country. The neatness and patience of women fit them 
admirably for this work. It is an agreeable, but at present not 
a very constant or profitable employment. The coloring of litho- 
graphs in printing has done away with much hand coloring. The 
painting of stereoscopic plates has given employment to some 
ladies, and does not require much skill or taste. The gentleman 
who prepared stereoscopic plates for the Messrs. A., employed 



PAINTERS OF PLATES FOR BOOKS. 89 

several ladies, to whom he paid on an average from $9 to $10 a 
week, working by the piece. Botanical plates are mostly colored 
by hand. The gentleman who prepares the fashion plates of the 
Ladies' American Magazine employs women, paying from $4 to 
$7 a week, according to application and rapidity of execution. 
They work from eight till dark, in winter, and by the week, not 
the piece. It requires but a few weeks to learn. He has stereo- 
scopic views also painted by women. They receive rather better 
prices, as it requires some artistic taste and more care. The 
universal complaint among employers is, that their best work- 
women will get married and leave them. If women were better 
paid, employers would not be so likely to lose them. A few 
years ago, we saw a newspaper statement to this effect : When 
maps were colored by hand in New York, girls were paid from 
three cents to ten cents a sheet, and they earned from $3 to $5 a 
week. A few years back, it was estimated that there were two 
hundred female paint colorers at the top of the profession, who 
made excellent wages by coloring costly engravings. The color- 
ers of plates in Leslie's Magazine pay by the hundred or thou- 
sand. The first year, a learner is paid but little. If she succeeds 
right well in that time, she is then paid according to the quality 
and quantity of her work, earning from $3 to $5 per week. They 
must work in the shop, so the superintendent can see if it is 
properly done, or reject and have altered such plates as are not. 
All seasons are alike. A manufacturer of children's toy books 
told me he employed girls for coloring, paying by the piece. 
They earned each from $3 to $3.50 a week. They used stencil 
plates. He generally kept them employed all the year round, 
but the occupation is full. A German print colorer told me he 
employed thirty girls till the panic, paying by the piece from $3 
to $3.50 a week. Stencil plates of varnished paper were used. 
He paid his workers from the first, and they could either sit or 
stand while at work. Another paint colorer told me his girls* 
earned from $4 to $4.50 a week, for coloring the finest prints, 
working only in daylight. A manufacturer of valentines and 
children's toy books told me his girls painted valentines in winter, 
and toy books in summer. He pays two of his girls by the week 
$7 each, and none of the rest less than $4 a week. They work 
from nine to ten hours a day. The use of stencils by Germans 
has reduced the price of such work. He could get girls to do 
book coloring for $2 a week, but prefers to retain his old hands 
constantly. Most colorers of prints work at home. A getter up 
of gentlemen's fashion plates told me he pays ten cents for color- 
ing a large sheet containing several figures, and the worker find- 
ing her own materials. No one could earn the salt of her bread 



90 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

at such rates. Another print colorer told me it requires from 
two to six weeks to learn, according to the ability of the learner. 
Sometimes he has Government work that must be done hurriedly. 
They have least work from New Year to March. Some print 
colorers pay by the week ; $5 is a good price. I saw an engrav- 
ing on the wall representing an English barnyard, for which the 
proprietor was paid $3 for coloring, while he pays the lady who 
does it ; $2.25. Some ladies, he says, can earn from $10 to $12 
a week. 

84. Photographists and Colorists. Mr. P. says they 
would employ good lady artists, if they could get them ; but 
ladies do not succeed so well, because they do not have such an 
efficient course of training — do not go through the same grada- 
tions in a preparation for the work. They mostly employ men 
that are foreigners to color. A colorist of photographic views 
for stereoscopes says he pays a lady to color for him $6 a gross. 
English ladies color best. The firm with which he is connected 
cannot get their coloring done in New York, so have most of it 
done in London ; and as work is cheaper, it costs them no more 
with the addition of transportation. At one photographic estab- 
lishment in Philadelphia, the proprietor told us that several 
artists now devote their time to the coloring of photographs. 
He pays one lady at the rate of $12 a week. She is employed 
on the low-priced pictures, such as are sold for $5, exclusive of 
frame. The portraits range from $75 up. The lady painter is 
daughter of an English artist. She works all the hours of day- 
light, when required — sometimes only six hours. B. has at 
different times encouraged and employed female artists ; has 
never met with any one who excelled, but does not doubt they 
might do so if properly trained. He had a lady partner in 
daguerreotyping and photographing. She was very poor when 
she commenced, but, while engaged in it, supported herself and 
♦children, and educated them, and left $3,000. He told me of two 
ladies making a handsome support by coloring photographs. His 
best pictures are painted by gentlemen artists. He thinks the 
taking of photographs not so suitable for women, because it is 
dirty work; that is, the nitrate of silver that gets on the fingers 
stains them like indelible ink — a small difficulty, I think, in the 
way of a woman that has a living to make. There are several 
ladies in Philadelphia who make their living by painting photo- 
graphs. Some ladies have quitted the profession of teaching to 
become photographers. Ladies are sometimes employed in pho- 
tographic galleries, to wait upon company, agree upon prices, 
deliver the work, and receive pay. For such services they are 
paid from $3 to $5 per week, according to the amount of busi- 



PHOTOGRAPHERS AND COLORISTS. 91 

ness done. Photographers work from eight to ten hours. Some 
think the business unhealthy, because of the gases that arise 
from the combination of chemicals. Women that have had 
practice in drawing and painting can give a pretty and delicate 
touch in the coloring of photographs. L., photographist, employs 
two ladies to color photographs in water colors. He teaches it 
for $10. A good colorist, with constant employment, can earn 
from $10 to $15 a week. He thinks there are openings in the 
South. Some prefer water coloring to oil, because you can see 
the pictures in any light. Oils are better for large pictures that 
you see at a distance. Painting in water colors does not pay the 
artist so well as painting in oils. Misses E., New York, are 
busy all the time. They execute different styles of painting, 
but have lately found it more profitable to color photographs. 
They each earn from $12 to $15 per week coloring photographs, 
when busy. Their work is all brought to the house. They have 
had several offers to go South, and better prices than they receive 
in New York. Miss E., with whom I talked, thought if any 
ladies would learn thoroughly, and could not obtain painting to 
do, they could easily obtain situations as teachers of painting. 
I saw the wife of an artist who gives instruction in drawing and 
painting. She told me her husband is very conscientious and 
will not recommend any one to spend their time and money 
learning to draw and paint, if he finds they have not talent of 
that kind. Some people think they possess genius, and can excel 
in painting, even if they commence when thirty or more years of 
age ; but it is best for an artist to commence early in life. The 
talent of some is developed in a shorter time than others. One 
may learn in three months what another could not in six. Her 
husband can advance an American pupil as far in two years as 
he did his German pupils in four. He thinks the Americans are 
more apt, and acquire more rapidly. She thought a lady would 
not find any difficulty in obtaining constant employment as a 
painter. Miss J., Philadelphia, has as much to do at coloring 
photographs as she wishes. It takes her about a day to color a 
small one, for which she receives $1. For those pictures on 
which there is more work, the prices are higher. The painting 
of ivory types is more expensive. An ivory type the size of a $1 
photograph would cost $10. Most photographers send their 
coloring out of the establishment to be done, and pay by the piece. 
In several States, women have been successfully engaged as da- 
guerreans and photograph colorers. Some have travelled through 
the country, stopping in various towns to carry on their business. 
Some knowledge of chemistry is necessary for a photographer. 
One photographer writes : " Yfomen are employed in every 



92 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

country where there are first-class galleries. It is unhealthy in 
the operating rooms, on account of the acids and poisons. We 
pay $4 a week to ladies to attend the show case and wait upon 
customers. We pay men $6 and $7, because they can do more 
by one third of the same kind of work than a woman. Any part 
of the business can be performed by a woman. We pay girls $4 
from the commencement. They spend eight or ten hours at the 
gallery, but are not employed all the time. They are as comfort- 
able as in their own parlors receiving visitors. Ladies prefer one 
of their own sex in the reception room. There is always demand 
for superior work in our line ; consequently, a prospect of em- 
ployment so long as the world stands. In Syracuse, fall and 
winter are the most busy seasons.*" Mr. A. says the occupation of 
portrait and miniature painters is gone since the discovery of the 
photographer's art. He thinks ladies are as capable of arriving 
at great excellence as men in painting, if they will only apply 
themselves as closely. Their knowledge of colors probably makes 
them excel in that respect. He teaches photographic coloring, 
charging $1 a lesson of one hour. A mechanical execution in 
coloring is gained in a short time, but a good photographist 
ought to be an experienced artist. Mr. R. told me his girls are 
engaged in painting and mounting. He pays one $7 a week, and 
the other $5. An individual that is bright, intelligent, and 
capable of rapid tuition, could learn in six months. They spend 
from eight to six o'clock in the gallery. They have but a few 
minutes recess at noon, as that is the most busy time. He prefers 
women for some parts of the work. Men are more powerful 
artists, give a better expression; women are more careful, and 
give a finer finish. I talked with a photographic colorist, who 
gives instruction to a few ladies in coloring, and employs four. 
He thinks women are generally better judges of colors than men, 
but some women never learn the shades. (I think, unless it arises 
from some physical defect, it is because they are not tciught to 
distinguish colors when children. It is difficult to teach a per- 
son the careful use of any of the senses if they are neglected in 
childhood.) The work requires some artistic taste. A knowl- 
edge of drawing and colors, and a good education, are essential to 
success. A young lady in the business should be social in her 
nature, and of pleasing address. I would think an artist of any 
kind would need the talent of drawing to the surface the soul of 
his or her sitter, for much of the beauty of a picture depends 
upon expression. Mr. G-. thinks water colors neater for ladies than 
oil. The employment is now in its infancy. The taste for photo- 
graphs is increasing. There are now one hundred engaged in the 
business where fifteen years ago there was but one. Photog- 



PHOTOGRAPHERS AND COLORISTS. 93 

raphists are usually employed from nine to six, or from eight to 
five. * The remuneration is good when constant employment can 
be had. The best locality is a growing place. The business 
would grow up with the place. The prices paid enable ladies to 
obtain boarding in houses that possess the comforts, and even the 
luxuries of life. Summer is the dullest season, but much de- 
pends on weather. French women generally succeed well in 
coloring. Some English ladies, also, do well. Mr. G. gives a 
lady colorer $12 a week. Mr. B., a photographist, writes: 
" Women are employed in my branch of art in England. I would 
like to find competent assistance, but have been unable to do so. 
The work is not unhealthy, but it is very trying to the eyes, I 
should think that in many respects the work would be well 
adapted to females, but think, from trials that I have made, that 
the mathematical precision of the work is a feature unfavorable to 
the feminine mind. Were I to find such assistance as I would 
be satisfied with, I would pay according to capacity and work. 
Thorough artistic education and natural talents are essential. In 
point of taste, as regards color and elegance, I think women 
might be superior; as regards precision and firmness of minute 
work, I am uncertain. It would require considerable time and 
patience to learn the art." One of the proprietors of a photo- 
graphic establishment in Philadelphia writes : " I employ from 
two to four ladies in painting photographic pictures, and pay by 
the week from $3 to $6. They work eight hours a day. I pay 
men about twice as much, because the men, being longer at the 
business, work better and quicker. It requires several years' 
practice to gain a moderate acquaintance with this branch. It is 
our opinion, that women are well adapted for most branches of 
photographing, and for some they would be superior to men, pro- 
vided always, that they bring to the work a certain degree of 
education, and some natural talent. We suppose the reason they 
are not more employed in this and similar pursuits, is, that young 
women of a certain degree of education, are seldom eager for any 
sort of employment. Besides, in this business, it requires years 
of earnest application to master it, and before this is accom- 
plished, many marry. The employer feels little security in retain- 
ing a woman at the business after going through years of instruc- 
tion, because in many, or most cases, they marry, and must attend 
to their domestic duties. With a man the reverse takes place. 
He becomes a better and more steady worker after marriage." 
" We have a great improvement in photography by its combina- 
tion with lithography. By the process adopted, the object to be 
represented is photographed at once on the stone, and thus the 
intermediate operations are avoided." In times of excitement, 



94: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF "WOMEN. 

like the present, when soldiers are going from their homes, there 
is much for the artists to do. 

85. Preparers of Scientific Plates. Mrs. B. has 
supported herself for some time by making drawings of fossils 
for works on geology. She is now doing one for a work on 
Niagara. It requires a great deal of care. It is very trying to 
the eyes as the engraver imitates every line made by the pencil, 
and a magnifying glass is of course much used for presenting en- 
larged views of the smallest fossils. I think she is paid by the 
piece or set, for the work. Of course this pursuit must be 
limited. 

86. Seal Engravers, Seal engraving is cutting in a 
precious stone, letters or a device. The cutting is done by means 
of a lathe and sharp cutting tools. Diamond dust and oil are 
used. The lathe is moved by treadles. The finer the work, the 
smaller the tools. Taste, good eyesight, and a knowledge of form 
are necessary. No pattern is used. The hand and eye must 
serve as guides. It would be a very pretty occupation for women, 
but would require time, patience, and practice. Seal engravers 
in New York earn from 810 to $12 per week, but the occupation 
there is filled. Mrs. Ellet, in her " Women Artists, 1 ' mentions a 
Prussian and a German lady as being noted for their skill in 
cutting precious stones. A seal engraver told me he does not 
pay apprentices the first year, but the second year $2, and from 
that up, 'according to the abilities of the worker. It requires 
from four to seven years to learn all the branches thoroughly. 
Another engraver told me the business is not worth learning now 
that gum mucilage has done away with sealing wax, and conse- 
quently the use of seals. The designs for seals are usually taken 
from a heraldry book ; always when for a coat of arms. Such 
seals are in greater demand in Europe. Seal engravers in this 
country do not have constant employment. They cut fancy seals 
when not otherwise occupied. The work can be done at night 
by a good light. 

87. Sculptors. Properzia di Eossi, Maria Domenica, 
Anna Maria Schurmann, Maria von Steinbach, Anne Seymour 
Darner, Falicie de Faveau, and in our own country and time 
Miss Lander, Harriet Hosmer, and Miss Stebbins, are among 
those who have proved the ability of woman to succeed in sculp- 
ture. Sculptors, it should be understood, seldom, if ever, labor 
with the chisel. They prepare models, which are made in a com- 
position of clay or wax, and then superintend the imitation of 
these in marble. Sculpture is the chastest imitation of nature 
and the highest expression of the form and spirit of beauty known 
to art ; and while woman is possessed of the finest sensibility and 



SCULPTORS. 95 

most exquisite perceptions, there can certainly be no reason why 
she should not succeed in it. Mr. Lagrange, in Urging the es- 
tablishment of Government schools of design in France, says : 
M Painting, engraving, and sculpture, encouraged as music and 
dancing are, promise equal success ; they provide a more assured 
support in its being better acquired, and a more substantial re- 
nown, and especiall} 7 a calmer and chaster existence. Painter, 
engraver, or sculptor, it is her works alone that claim the public 
eye. Her person is sacred ; no one dares to lift the veil that 
conceals her countenance; no one presumes to call upon her to 
courtesy to feeble applause. A young girl, chaste and pure, she 
may watch by the lonely hearthside ; a wife, she may not see her 
smiles and caresses in dispute as the seal of a purchased rite; a 
mother, she may educate her children under a name they will 
never be tempted to despise. Exhibitions, open to everybody, 
will afford the public an opportunity to measure her talent or 
genius ; critics will confine their attacks to her works ; and praise, 
if she deserves it, will reach her eyes and ears in terms that she 
will be able to listen to or peruse without the accompaniment of 
a blush." Mrs. Wilson, wife of a physician living in Cincinnati, 
has executed busts of her husband and children that are said to 
be excellent likenesses. Mrs. Dubois, of New York, has sculp- 
tured in marble several specimens. Misses Lander and Stebbins, 
and Miss Hosmer, we believe, find their art lucrative. Sculptors 
should attend anatomical dissections ; should learn the structure 
of the human frame, and the appearance of the muscles under the 
various conditions to which circumstances may subject them. In- 
deed the study of anatomy is essential to success. In sculpture, 
we closely imitate the parent, nature. The most superior speci- 
mens of statuary are said to be modelled after nature, as seen in 
the unlaced, unpinched, unaltered original — just as nature's own 
hand has chiselled. In sculpture, modelling is the inventive part 
of the work, and requires taste and genius ; copying is a merely 
mechanical operation. A pursuit of this kind, if followed from 
the love of it, becomes a soul- engrossing study. Means or friends 
to rely upon, for at least two years, during the time of study, 
will be necessary in most cases ; for if the artist is to support her- 
self while she studies, only the highest earnestness can sustain 
her ; but then those that are not in earnest should not undertake 
this art — for " it is better to pursue a frivolous trade in a serious 
manner, than a sublime art frivolously." Without very decided 
talent it will be some time before a sculptor comes sufficiently into 
notice to sustain herself entirely by the filling of orders. " Sculp- 
ture has become almost a fashion in Paris ; but a woman finds it 
difficult to devote herself to studies pertaining to the art. Though 



96 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

greater in number than painters, they have accomplished scarcely 
any remarkable works." Many women who might not undertake 
sculpture, might learn to work in marble for sculptors. A mar- 
ble worker in its various branches, writes me : " I think women 
might be very well employed in the lighter parts of finishing. I 
suppose they are not so employed, because there has not yet been 
any organized and extended effort made to introduce them into 
this line of business. I am not sure, but think it likely, women 
are employed to a limited extent in chiselling marble in Italy 
and France. Miss Hosmer has done more than mould for others 
to copy. She has herself handled the mallet and chisel. The 
employment in general is healthy; but lettering, and indeed fine 
chiselling of any sort, requiring the eye to be brought near to the 
work, raises a dust, which is breathed into the lungs — though the 
injury is not very apparent till the lapse of years reveals it. The 
qualifications desirable are a good judgment, and eye for form, 
and a certain slight of hand. The prospect for marble workers 
is good in all departments." On the other hand, another writes : 
" Sculpture is too laborious for women, and if women practise 
the art, they hire all the work done." In Ronie, two thousand 
women serve as models to painters and sculptors. 

88. Steel and other Engravers. Steel and copper 
engraving require a very good knowledge of drawing, and careful 
manipulation. A great advantage has been gained by substitut- 
ing steel for copper plates. One beauty of steel engraving is 
that it can be done at home. Men like easy employments, and so 
have appropriated this one. An engraver must learn to convey 
the feelings of an artist. Lithography has seriously interfered 
with steel engraving, and photography has to some extent. There 
are very few journeymen engravers. Most go into business for 
themselves. Some women are employed in engraving copper cyl- 
inders for calico prints. Line and stipple are the most expensive 
engraving. Mezzotint is cheaper. Boys practise on copper, and 
do not work on anything valuable until they are able to engrave 
well. One reason that engravers do not like to take apprentices 
is, that they cannot do any thing under two or three years, of 
any value to their employer, but expect to be paid from the first. 
Besides, an engraver seldom has enough of such engraving as a 
learner can do to keep him constantly employed. Those who re- 
ceive apprentices in New York take them for five years, and pay 
something from the first ; but very few men in New York, in any 
branch of work, are willing to take apprentices. Much of the 
success of a learner depends on his inclination, taste, and individ- 
ual exertion ; and when he possesses these, they render him valu- 
able to his master — so it proves a matter of mutual interest. All 



BANK NOTE ENGKAVEKS. 97 

engraving is mechanical to a certain extent, but requires some 
artistic taste. In "Women Artists" we find the names of some 
ladies distinguished as engravers in Italy, France, Germany, and 
England, in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth 
centuries. Jane Taylor and her sisters paid their share of the 
family expenses by engraving. Miss Caroline Watson was an 
engraver of portraits to the queen in the reign of George III. 
Angelica Kaufiman and Elizabeth' Blackwell both engraved on 
steel. We read : " In London, recently, one accomplished female 
engraver has turned her steel plates into a pleasant country house, 
which she means to furnish with the proceeds of her delicate 
painting on glass." In Paris, during the last thirty years, quite 
a number of ladies have earned a livelihood by steel engraving, 
and several are now employed there in card engraving, and en- 
graving fashion plates. There are some engravers in the South 
and West, but there are openings for more. A card, seal, medal, 
and door-plate engraver writes : "The usual number of hours for 
engravers are from eight to ten. The business may be learned 
in from one to two years, to be of use ; but to learn thoroughly 
requires three or four years. The business generally pays well 
by jobs, and I see no reason why females may not engrave as 
successfully as males with the same application." 

89. Bank Mote Engravers, " Steel engraving was 
first practised in England by the calico printers ; but it was first 
employed for bank notes and for common designs by Jacob Per- 
kins, of Newburyport, Mass." The American Bank Note Com- 
pany, New York, employ about sixty girls, forty-seven of whom 
are engaged in printing or making impressions ; the others in dry- 
ing, assorting, and laying together the sheets to be placed under a 
hydraulic press. It requires but a few weeks to learn the part 
done by girls. Some are paid $3 and some $3.50 per week. 
They are mostly American girls. A lady told me that she heard 
a girl, who had been employed to cut up bank notes (done with 
scissors), say she often earned $9 a week. The company pay a 
boy 83 a week from commencement until through his appren- 
ticeship, which is usually four or five years. Here a man can 
earn $100 a week, if a first-class bank note engraver; but in Eng- 
land not more than $10 or $12. There, however, paper money 
is but little used ; a £5 note being the smallest in value. Bank 
note engraving is both mechanical and artistic. At the office of 
the National Bank Note Company, a gentleman showed me the 
various processes. He had often thought ladies would do well to 
learn bank note engraving. I saw two or three gentlemen engrav- 
ing. The process is simple, but requires a good deal of patience 
and practice. Their girls are employed to place the sheet for an 
5 



98 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

impression under a roller, and, after the impression is made, remove 
it. Some receive $3, and some $3.50 a week. It is dirty work, 
on account of the oil and ink used. Their girls wash every even- 
ing the blankets used on the cylinders. Bank-note engravers of 
the first order receive a salary of $4,000. Some receive from 
$2,000 to $3,000 per annum. Bank note engravers work but 
eight hours a day. Mr. M. thinks there would not be much diffi- 
culty, if a lady wanted to learn bank note engraving, from the 
prejudices of men, for some of them are not only just but gener- 
ous. One of the gentlemen engraving knew several ladies in 
England that were bank note engravers. 

90. Card Engravers. I was told by a card engraver 
that it was not usual to pay a learner anything. He gives his 
apprentice only his board the first year. A card engraver may 
draw letters well, and not be able to write well, and vice versa. 
One should be steady and patient to draw and form letters, and 
possess some natural taste, to succeed. It requires also much 
practice. A card engraver can earn $5 a day, if he is industri- 
ous, and has sufficient work. A journeyman is paid in proportion 
to his abilities, from $5 to $25 per week. Some card engravers 
earn $2,000 a year, clear of all expenses. The older a city, the 
more engraving is done. In Europe, first-class merchants never 
use type cards, but engraved ones. 

91. Door Plate Engravers. I was told by a door plate 
engraver that a skilful person, who would apply himself closely, 
could learn the business, so that, at the end of one year, he could 
make a living. For door plate engraving, it is necessary to form 
letters well. The size of the letters for a given space must be 
divided by the eye. It requires great care, as one badly formed 
letter would spoil the whole plate. Engraving of any kind 
fatigues the back from stooping, and the eyes from straining. In 
door plate engraving the eyes suffer least fatigue. Of course less 
strength is necessary for plate engraving if the tools are of a 
good quality and in proper order. 

92. Map Engravers. Map engraving is divided- into 
two kinds : the lettering and plain work. The last can be 
learned in six months by a person of taste and talent. The 
most that is needed is practice. A knowledge of drawing is not 
necessary for this branch. There is not much map engraving 
done in this country, because of the expense. Most is done in 
New York and Philadelphia. The best map engraving done in 
Paris is executed by ladies. There are also some ladies employed 
in map engraving in London, and card engraving is there quite 
common for ladies. 



PICTURE AND HERALDRY ENGRAVERS. 99 

93- Picture and Heraldry Engravers. Engraving 
pictures pays well — a man often earning $10 a day. A superior 
landscape engraver calculates to earn $2,500 a year. Mr. K. 
historical engraver, does the engraving for the Cosmopolitan 
Art Journal, He says : " In England, better prices are paid for 
historical engraving than here. Those who do the work receive 
less, but the employer has a greater profit than in the United 
States. More time is allowed the engraver in England to ex- 
ecute a piece of work." Mr. S. pays his hands from $7 to $10 a 
week, and the best historical engraver never gets in this country 
over $30 a week. In England the work hours of an engraver are 
nine ; here seven. He says the art is dying out both here and in 
England. It is a something in which we can always be improv- 
ing. Seven years was formerly the length of apprenticeship in 
England, and there an apprentice was paid nothing while learn- 
ing ; on the contrary, the parent usually pays a premium of £100. 
When an apprentice has finished, he will earn £1 a week, and 
continue to receive more according to his skill and ability. Some 
people send pictures from the United States to England to be 
engraved, saying they cannot do such work in this country as in 
England ; while, if they would pay the same price, and allow the 
engravers as much time, it could be done just as well. Such an 
engraving as you would pay $150 for here, in England you would 
pay $200 for. In England it is customary for an engraver to 
confine himself to one style ; for instance, in " Falstaff Muster- 
ing his Recruits," one engraver would do the wall, another the 
figures, and another the drapery. Mr. R. was paid only $2,000 for 
engraving u Falstaff Mustering his Recruits," and it took three 
men two years. The business is not unhealthy, and not injurious 
to the eyesight, although a glass must be used constantly. Mr. J., 
historical engraver, used to have persons employed that did the 
different parts of a picture, and he paid them each from $15 to 
$25 a week. He thinks, of those who learn metal engraving in 
Europe, not more than fifty per cent, pursue it as a vocation, and 
not above four per cent, attain perfection. Some engraving, both 
picture and letter, is done by etching, but the best and most ex- 
pensive with a graver. Mr. J. M. Sartain writes in answer to a 
circular : " I have no females in my employment, because I work 
_ alone. To direct others or alter what they do wrong, takes 
longer than doing the whole work myself. Neither do I know 
of females being employed by others in my branch of business. 
But if I were willing to be troubled with the teaching of any one 
at all, I should choose a female. This is from my experience of 
the males I taught in times past. Women have the requisites 
more than men — patience, neatness, delicacy ; and the occupation 



100 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

is as suitable for them as any other they are accustomed to 
adopt. An unmarried daughter of mine is about to learn from 
me, with a view to follow it as a profession. The chance of em- 
ployment is however very limited, for the reason that the cost of 
printing plates separately necessitates, in an extensive class of 
pictorial embellishments, the use of woodcuts. This wood en- 
graving is equally suited for females, and to a limited extent they 
are thus employed. The field in that branch is a wide one al- 
ready, with a constantly increasing demand. In my own branch 
of engraving, the kind of skill required is that of drawing. The 
mere mechanical skill required in any kind of engraving is easily 
attained ; but the art of drawing is the great thing, and positively 
demands aptitude and taste — at all events, quite close application 
and earnestness. Skill in drawing is a key that admits to a 
wider range of arts than I can readily enumerate, and successful 
and profitable employment in any engraving depends on that. I 
am chairman of the committee on instruction of the Board of 
Directors of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and in 
that capacity do all I can (as do also the other directors) to en- 
courage female talent. We have seven or eight ladies among 
our students, and they certainly are fully equal to the males in 
capacity for acquiring art. Some model, others only draw. The 
whole of our academy studies are gratuitous. For whatever 
branch of the fine arts is to be followed, the first requisite is 
drawing r , and the next is drawing, and the third ar>d last is 
drawing" Mr. B., heraldic chaser, says there are several pro- 
cesses in making heraldry plates, sketching, engraving, emboss- 
ing, chasing, and burnishing. He used to employ girls to burnish- 
The making of patterns for heraldry is never taught in this coun- 
try to women, as it would cause the labor of men so employed to 
depreciate. He pays a man from $15 to $20 a week for chasing. 
He charges $1 for finding the coat of arms of an individual or 
family. 

94. Telegraph Operators, A new source of employ- 
ment has been opened by the invention of the electric telegraph. 
Most of the telegraphing in England is clone by women, and in 
the United States a number of ladies are employed as operators. 
To a quick and intelligent mind it requires but a short time to 
learn. An English paper says : " Here women do the business 
better than men, because of the more undivided attention they 
pay to their duties ; but considerable inconvenience is found to 
result from their ignorance of business terms, which causes them 
to make mistakes in the messages sent. However, a short course 
of previous instruction easily overcomes this impediment." We 
have been told that, in one telegraph office in London, several 



TELEGRAPH OPERATORS. 101 

hundred women are employed. I hope the application of steam 
to the operations of the electric telegraph may not interfere with 
the entrance of women into the occupation. In New Lisbon, 
Ohio, a young woman was employed, a few years ago, as prin- 
cipal operator in a telegraph office, with the same salary received 
by the man who preceded her in that office. " I was told hy 
her," writes my informant, " that several women were qualifying 
themselves, in Cleveland, for the same occupation." The ex-super- 
intendent of a line writes : " I have long been persuaded that ul- 
timately a large proportion of the telegraphists, employed exclu- 
sively for writing, would be females, both because of their usually 
reliable habits, their ability to abstract and concentrate thought 
upon their engagements, their greater patience and industry, and 
the economy of their wages. In offices where there is a large 
amount of business, and, consequently, much intercommunication 
with customers, I have supposed the arrangement would be to 
have a clerk to receive and deliver communications, and the corps 
of operators and writers, composed exclusively of females, in an 
adjoining or upper room, apart from public inspection. And to this 
arrangement, I think, there is at this time very little to oppose, 
except the antagonism naturally felt by male operators, who see 
in it a loss of employment to themselves, and a want of proper 
facilities for teaching and obtaining a complement, in number, of 
female telegraphists. Any female proficient in orthography, with 
an inclination to useful employment, would make a good tele- 
graphist, and might readily command, under a system above in- 
dicated, a salary of from S300 to $500, and be profitable to her 
employers beyond the ordinary male telegraphists employed un- 
der the present arrangement of office. It is in operating by the 
Morse system that ladies are mostly or entirely employed. The 
Morse is the easiest. They telegraph in small towns, where there 
is not much to do, and the compensation is small." The Electric 
Telegraph Company in London suggests that women should be em- 
ployed in preference to men, as working more rapidly. All the 
lady telegraphists we have heard of gave satisfaction to all parties 
concerned. To Mr. A., connected with the New York and Bos- 
ton telegraph line, I am indebted for the following information : 
" Women are employed in operating the Morse instrument. They 
are paid from $6 to $25 per month, and are paid by the month. 
For the class of offices in which females are employed, about the 
same wages are paid both sexes. It requires from three to six 
weeks to learn, and nothing is paid while learning. The quali- 
fications needed are a fair knowledge of orthography, arithmetic, 
geography, and ordinary mechanical ability. We may want a 
few operatives, say six annually. The employment is constant, 



102 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

and about ten hours a clay are devoted to work. We employ 
about fifty women, and they only at small offices. Nearly all are 
American. The employment is comfortable. There are no parts 
of our occupation suitable for women in whieh they are not en- 
gaged. They are generally more attentive and trustworthy than 
men. The price they pay for board depends on the locality, say 
from $1.50 to 82 per week." 

95. Vocalists. This is an important and profitable em- 
ployment — one that has secured to many a poor foreigner visit- 
ing this country a snug little fortune. We have only to cite the 
cases of Jenny Lind, Garcia, Sontag, Parodi, and Catherine 
Hays. It was stated in the New York Tribune of December, 
1853, that Catherine Hays had sent 150,000 to purchase an 
estate in Ireland. American talent is in some cases very highly 
cultivated ; but we fear the Scripture verse applies to the sub- 
stantial encouragement of native vocalists amongst us : " A pro- 
phet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own 
house." Too much money and attention, we think, are lavished 
upon foreign vocalists, while home talent is depreciated. An 
American singer must often go to other countries and acquire a 
name, before she is received with eclat in her own. It may be 
that other countries have the same failing, but, we think, not to 
the same extent. Let us love American talent, and encourage it 
before every other. Adelaide Patti, Miss Hinckley, and Miss 
Kellogg are at present the most noted singers of American birth. 
Mr. C. told me, that in New York, lady singers receive from $100 
to $400 per annum for singing in churches. One lady choir- 
singer of whom we knew, received $500 a year, singing twice on 
Sabbath. Not more than from twelve to fifteen lady singers in 
New York receive over $350. One lady in a fashionable church 
receives 11,000 ; but she is a widow, and somewhat favored. An- 
other lady, leading the choir in a Broadway church, receives a 
salary of $1,000, I have been told. 

96 a Wax Work. I called on two Italians that make wax 
fruit ; their baskets vary in price from twenty -five cents to $2. 
It would take a day and a half to make a $2 basket. The Ital- 
ian that could speak some English told me that when he goes 
out to work, he charges $2.50 a day ; but to give lessons, he 
would charge $2 a day. He thought an individual might learn in 
eight, ten, twelve, or fifteen lessons, according to abilities and 
taste. Miss W., teacher of wax flowers, charges $1 a lesson, and 
thinks eight or ten lessons sufficient. She thinks in country 
places there would be openings for teachers. I think, where 
there are large seminaries, a teacher would do better. She says 
there is an opening in Troy. If a person has enough to do, it 



WOOD ENGKAVERS. 103 

pays well. She makes by hand ; they are more natural than 
those made by moulds. 

97. Wood Engravers. Much and long-continued toil 
is requisite for success in wood engraving. A great deal de- 
pends, also, on the talent of the individual. Wood engraving 
is a business adapted to women, as it requires mostly patience 
and application, and but little physical strength. Mechanical 
skill is the most that is requisite, yet, as in everything else, it 
bespeaks the soul and taste of the originator. " Women's nimble 
fingers, accustomed to wield the needle, lend themselves quite 
easily to minute operations in the use of small instruments and 
the almost imperceptible shades of manipulation that wood en- 
graving exacts." As more publishing is done in our country, of 
course there will be a greater demand for wood engravers. A 
great many newspapers now contain a large number of woodcuts, 
as Harpers Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, &c. 
Wood engraving has been called into use for Government reports 
and scientific works, aside from its extensive demands for period- 
ical literature. A lady engaged in the business writes of a class 
in wood engraving : " The pupils vary so much in ability, appli- 
cation, perseverance, and in the number of hours devoted to it, 
that it is impossible to judge what any one may do who has not 
made a trial. My own experience is that the practice of wood 
engraving brings a sure return for all the outlay of time and 
trouble spent in acquiring the art. It would hardly be safe to 
rely entirely upon the proceeds of the second year ; the third 
may make up for it. The best wood engraving is done in Eng- 
land and the United States. In classes of wood engraving in the 
schools of design in England, the students are required to pro- 
duce the drawing as well as to engrave it." " For a quarter of a 
century past, many hundreds of young women, we are assured, 
have supported themselves by wood engraving, for which there is 
now a demand which no jealousy in the stronger sex can inter- 
cept. The effort to exclude women was made in this, as in other 
branches of art ; but the interests of publishers and the public 
were more than a match for it." " In 1839, Charlotte Nesbit, 
Marianne Williams, Mary Byfield, Mary and Elizabeth Clint, 
held honorable positions among English wood engravers." Miss 
F., at Elmira, New York, carries on business for herself in wood 
engraving. She learned it at the Cooper Institute, four years ago. 
The pupils of that institute canvassed for work, some two and 
two, but she went alone, and principally in the lower part of the 
city. They visited publishers mostly — she went to manufactur- 
ers. She got an order for $500 worth of engraving at a gas- 
fixture manufactory. I have heard that ladies in the school of 



104 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

design, New York, receive the same price for wood engraving 
that men would receive. N. Orr, the wood engraver, thinks the 
prospect very good for a woman to earn a livelihood at it. He 
knows a lady who has not only supported herself but partially 
supported her parents by her work. For wood engraving, women 
usually receive as good prices as men. The business is increas- 
ing. There are none West, except a few in Cincinnati, and I 
believe a still smaller number in St. Louis and Chicago. A 
person that has any talent for it can earn a living at it in less 
than two years' practice. A knowledge of drawing is not essen- 
tial, as the drawing is usually put on the wood by the designer. 
Mr. Orr takes apprentices, but pays nothing the first year. They 
are bound to him for five or six years. Some engravers require 
a premium. I have been told that designing requires a very 
different and much higher order of talent than wood engraving. 
One designer can do enough in a day to keep a man busy a week. 
New York is the principal city for wood engraving. I think 
most men, while engraving, stand ; but all the ladies that I have 
seen at work sat. " A wood-engraving office in Cleveland em- 
ployed three girls in 1845, at wages varying from $3 to $7 per 
week, according to the experience of each in the business, being 
the same that men receive in the same office." 



MEKCANTILE PURSUITS- 

98. merchants. Occasionally we hear such complaints 
as these : " Women who keep stores of their own ask higher for 
their goods than men, and saleswomen are less obliging than 
male clerks." Women, as a general thing, do not understand 
their business as well as men, and that is the reason they are not 
so well liked. Those inclined to be bold, may become pert ; and 
those in poor health, peevish. " If women were more employed 
in stores," said Mr. P., " there would probably be less shopping, 
but as many goods sold. Young girls that go shopping to whis- 
per in the ears of clerks, would then find something else to do." 
Woman has a power of adaptedness that fits her admirably for 
the vocation of a merchant. A friend remarked to me that Mr. 
Stewart, of New York, she thought, would employ women in his 
store, if a large number of fashionable and influential ladies 
would petition him to do so. If the retail merchants of our 



MERCHANTS. 105 

large cities and towns would combine and employ only sales- 
women, how greatly would they promote the welfare of the nation ! 
Young men would no longer waste their health, strength, and 
talents selling gloves, tape, and dress goods, but would cultivate 
the soil, or find openings as traders, speculators, mechanics, and 
manufacturers, in cities, towns, and villages of our Western coun- 
try. They might do something more creditable to their physical 
powers, while they gave their half-starved sisters a chance to earn 
an honest livelihood. If ladies would patronize those stores only 
in which there were saleswomen, and influence their friends to do 
so, employers who now engage the service of salesmen would 
soon learn what was to their interest, and make a change. 
Promptness and regularity are desirable qualifications in a shop- 
keeper. The business brings those engaged into intercourse with 
all classes of people. Mrs. Ball makes this statement : " It is 
a singular fact that there are a great many more women in Eng- 
land in business for themselves than employed as tenders or 
clerks; while in America, the fact, at the present day, is directly 
the reverse." A lady who has lived in New York all her life 
said, if the merchants of the city would employ women, they 
could find twenty thousand to-morrow, ready and willing to enter 
their stores. In Paris large stores are owned and conducted by 
women, and even the importing and exporting of goods is in the 
hands of some. The" tact and address of French women admira- 
bly fit them for shopkeepers. Many of the smaller fancy and 
variety stores in our cities are owned by women, that have by 
long-continued industry earned a competency. Lady merchants 
can to some extent control the taste of the community where 
they are ; for such articles as they purchase and keep on hand 
will be likely to find sale. The taste of the best keepers of dry- 
goods and fancy stores, millinery establishments, and embroidery 
shops will be displayed in the dress of their patrons. To mer- 
chandize extensively, requires much experience and knowledge of 
business ; but to those that are qualified it presents an extensive 
opening for enterprise. Barter, or the exchange of one kind of 
goods for another, is very common in the villages and towns of 
our country. The Gothscheer (Austrian) women often follow 
the trade of peddlers, and are absent from their homes many 
months, travelling about the country. with staff in hand and a 
pack at their back. " Advertising and politeness are the main 
levers to get customers. Advertising will draw them ; ability to 
fill their orders will satisfy them ; and politeness will induce 
them to buy." Quick perceptive powers and judgment are also 
essential to the success of merchants. It is very desirable to 
have a good location for a store. A lady keeping a small dry- 
5* 



106 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

goods store told me she sells $100 worth of goods a week on an 
average. She has been nine years in the business, and constantly 
gaining trade. She likes rainy Saturday evenings, as she then 
sells most. She said one must use judgment in the amount of 
profit to be made on various articles. A person must regulate 
her prices by others. On some goods she can make but five per 
cent., and on some others fifty. Many of the fortunes in Boston 
are said to have been founded by women engaged in trade. And 
the ladies on Nantucket Island during the Revolutionary war 
conducted the business of their husbands, fathers, and brothers. 
A lady wrote, some years back, of some stores in one of our large 
cities : " The proprietors say they give from twenty-five to fifty 
per cent, more to the males than to the females of equal talent 
and capacity, but can give no reason why they should do it, 
except that it is the custom, and some parts of the business re- 
quire more physical strength, as some articles are too heavy to 
be handled by women." Yet why not, we would ask, place 
women in the lighter departments, and pay them exactly what 
would be paid a man for the same work ? The average wages of 
females in Philadelphia are $4.50 per week, though some get as 
high as $7 or $8, but very few above $6. In a few of the stores 
of New York and Philadelphia the business is conducted entirely 
by ladies. There is a school of commerce for women at Perth, 
France. "We read an account some time ago of a colored woman 
on the Island of Hayti, who is a wholesale dealer in provisions, 
and worth from $15,000 to $20,000, that she has made by her 
own industry and business tact. She can neither read nor write, 
but trusts entirely to her memory. She sells on credit to retail 
dealers, and to girls whom she has trained. The merchants have 
such unlimited confidence in her, that they will trust her to any 
amount. Nearly all the commercial business of Hayti is done 
by women. 

99. Bookkeepers, The employment of female account- 
ants is gradually extending in our cities. In female institutions 
of learning, and in benevolent institutions, lady bookkeepers 
might be very well employed. Indeed, we think, they would 
find no difficulty in obtaining situations. We know that many 
merchants would employ them, if they were properly qualified. 
We know of some that no.w occupy lucrative situations in fancy 
dry goods and millinery stores. We have no doubt but the 
books of most mercantile men would be more accurately kept, if 
their wives and daughters had charge of them. In all European 
countries women keep the books of the majority of retail stores. 
The books of nine tenths of the retail stores in Paris are kept 
*by women. They are fenced in ; and separated from the sales- 



BOOKKEEPERS. 107 

women by a framework of glass. A number of women are em- 
ployed as accountants at hotels in Europe. There is a large school 
for instruction in bookkeeping in Paris, where the pupils are 
practically trained. An exchange of articles of a trivial nature, 
and a cheap coin of some kind, are used as a medium of circulation. 
At one of the largest wholesale warehouses in Boston, the head 
corresponding clerk is a young woman, who writes a beautiful, 
rapid hand, and fulfils the duties of the situation to the complete 
satisfaction of her liberal employer. A practical knowledge of 
arithmetic is necessary for bookkeeping and selling goods — two of 
the most inviting openings now presented to women of ordinary 
intelligence. The lady who keeps the books of T — 's skirt facto- 
ry, New York, receives a salary of $400. Mr. M. prefers lady 
bookkeepers, because they are more particular in keeping ac- 
counts, and they are more patient in their calculations. They are, 
as a general thing, more honest and conscientious. Women are 
just as capable of becoming good financiers as men. Industry, 
honesty, and promptness, with the ability to write a plain, correct 
business letter, ability to calculate rapidly and correctly, with a 
knowledge of bookkeeping, certainly should insure a situation to 
a lady, where there is a vacancy. It is well, however, for those 
who have qualified themselves for bookkeeping, to obtain a certi- 
ficate : it is a passport that will aid them in securing a place. 
The salaries of bookkeepers in New York run from $250 to 
$2,500. At a large store, where saleswomen were employed, 
I was told they find lady bookkeepers more accurate in their ac- 
counts, and not so likely to appropriate money that don't belong 
to them. Where a gentleman bookkeeper receives $15, a lady 
usually receives but $8. I know of one lady in Cleveland, as- 
sistant cashier, who received a salary of $300. An accountant 
in Boston replies to a circular sent him : " I think the employ- 
ment as favorable to bodily health as any sedentary occupation ; 
but in my particular line of business it is rather trying to the 
head, as it often requires close application and intense thought. 
Those who employ women here as clerks, undoubtedly pay them 
by the day, week, month, or year, where they have permanent 
situations ; but for transient work, by the piece Women can al- 
ways be hired cheaper than men, as it costs them less to live. I 
am fifty years old, and have been figuring ever since I was six- 
teen ; still, I learn something new about accounts every day. A 
woman would have to serve a long apprenticeship in accounts 
and on books, before she could do much in adjusting accounts. 
For a first-class bookkeeper, practical experience in accounts and 
bookkeeping of business of all kinds are necessary qualifications. 
I always prefer the early part of the day for work. My business 



108 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

is as good at one season of the year as another. I attend to 
business as it suits my pleasure — sometimes four or five hours, 
and sometimes twelve or fifteen, according to the nature and im- 
portance of the task, and depending oftentimes upon the length 
of it, and the time when it is wanted. As a general thing, men 
and women everywhere in the United States keep as far apart in 
business affairs as possible — it is the custom. The counting house, 
ofiice, and place of business are not suitable for a female. I 
would state that I charge for making out accounts and adjusting 
books, as a general rule here in Boston, $10 per day, and some- 
times more — never less. I have had all prices, from $10 to $50 
per day, for one, two, and three months in succession. Sometimes 
I take a job by contract, say for $500, or some other specific 
sum, as may be agreed upon, according to the nature and value 
of the service rendered." 

100- Book Merchants, In many of the new towns 
springing up in the West, there are openings for booksellers. 
Many colleges and seminaries are being built up, thereby offering 
a still better market for the sale of school books. It would be 
well for those going into the business to ascertain, before doing so, 
what books are used in the literary institutions of the place. 
Some booksellers are so mean as to sell old-fashioned, out-of- 
date school books to country merchants, thereby clearing their 
own stock, and imposing their unsalable goods on others. No 
doubt, many established book merchants would be willing to 
trust, to such as they have confidence in, a stock of books to be 
sold on commission. When a sufficient sum is acquired, the in- 
dividual can purchase a stock of her own. Many dry-goods mer- 
chants keep a few books, but when there is a sufficient sale of 
books, a store, if expenses are only cleared for a while, may 
gradually become a revenue of profit, and is likely to prove a per- 
manent business, where discretion and industry are used. In 
London and Paris, women sell stationery, almanacs, memorandum 
books, diaries, and pocket books, on the streets. Public auctions 
of books are held frequently in cities and towns. Agents 
do much to extend a circulation of books. In large cities, mer- 
chants confine their stock of books to two or three kinds — as 
those of medicine, law, theology, or school books ; but, as a gene- 
ral thing, miscellaneous books are kept. The trade sales which 
occur in Boston once, and in Philadelphia and New York twice 
a year, are only attended by booksellers. These sales last but a 
few days. The prices at which books sell at these auctions are 
considered a pretty fair criterion of their future worth. Miss 
H. told me of a Miss P., niece of Horace Mann, now living in 
Concord, N, H., who kept a bookstore in Boston, and imported 



CHINA MERCHANTS. 109 

books to fill orders, but was crushed by other book importers, 
because she was a woman. In many towns and cities, women 
keep small stores for the sale of stationery, magazines, news- 
papers, &c. " In large stationery stores, women might be em- 
ployed to stamp initials on paper," with small hand presses made 
for the purpose. 

101. China Merchants. This business is peculiarly ap- 
propriate to women. Who so well able to handle china as care- 
ful women ? Who so well able to judge what will look well on 
a table ? It comes so entirely within their province, that the 
mind readily suggests the appropriateness. In Paris, most, if 
not all the china stores are kept by women. A lady china-dealer, 
on one of the avenues, told me that she sells considerable at night 
to working women, who cannot spare the time to go shopping in 
the day ; also, to ladies living in cross streets near, who go out 
walking in the evenings with their husbands, and call to buy ar- 
ticles in her line. It does not require as many attendants in a 
china as in any other kind of store. A girl is more careful and 
steady, and can dust china better than a boy ; but a boy answers 
best to take china home. She sells most about the holidays. It 
takes time to learn the business well. In an Eastern city, two 
ladies stood in their father's store, and so learned the business. 
They married brothers, and each opened china stores, which they 
attended, while their husbands engaged in other business. They 
are both widows now, but have raised and educated their chil- 
dren. A son and son-in-law of one conduct the business. They 
employ saleswomen, paying from $5 to $8 a week. They are 
now in search of two intelligent young women, from fifteen to 
eighteen years of age, to grow up to the business. They require 
a little more readiness in arithmetic, tact, and general business 
qualifications than they can easily meet with. From their ex- 
perience they judge the employment to be healthy. A lady in 
a large china store on Broadway, New York, receives $5 a week. 
A lady in another store told me that lifting crockery causes quite 
a strain on the back, and should be done by men. A person gets 
very dusty who attends china. It requires lifting and dusting, 
and now and then must be washed — always when first taken out 
of the crate. Mrs. L. and her husband are English, and have 
been brought up to the business. She sells most about Christ- 
mas. She is on her feet all the time. To learn the names of all 
the articles sold in a large store, and their prices, and to exercise 
care in handling, requires patience. A china merchant writes : 
" Women are generally paid less than men. There is a differ- 
ence of from $10 to $40 per month in favor of men, because 
(with few exceptions) women are not so well qualified to do busi- 



110 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

ness as men. It would take from six to eight months to learn to 
sell china. A clear head, common sense, and activity are the 
qualifications needed. Women are not more likely to be thrown 
out of employment than men, if as well qualified." A lady told 
me, the china is a slow business and seldom pays more than twen- 
ty-five per cent., but is a sure business for the cheaper kind of 
goods. The profit is not so much as for fancy articles of ladies' 
wear ; but less is lost from the change of style. China merchants, 
she thought, seldom employ women; why, she could not tell. 
Mr. H., who employs a girl, paid her $1.50 a week and board the 
first year, then raised her wages to $7 a month. He thinks 
if more girls would qualify themselves for china stores they 
would be likely to find employment. A girl should commence 
young, but should know how to read and write, on account 
of taking orders. He thinks it best to get homely girls, rather 
advanced in age, to attend store, because the young and hand- 
some ones will get married. He prefers girls, because they are 
more quiet and steady. Small articles of china he sends the girl 
home with ; heavy articles he takes himself. A lady, whose 
ware was partly out of doors and partly in the house, said she 
had dusted it at least a dozen times through the day, and then it 
was covered with dust. Her breakage is considerable. She sells 
most about Christmas. Another china dealer told me, she sells 
most in spring, when people go to housekeeping. E. L., in the 
Five Points, sells most in summer, because her patrons are poor 
people, and in summer the men have most work, and their ex- 
penses are lighter — consequently the women have more money. 
Her stand is a good one, but she does not much more than make 
a living. The business requires some experience in buying and 
selling. Ladies sometimes come into the store to purchase articles 
they would not ]ike to ask a man for. A girl keeping a china 
stand told me she sells most in spring and fall. She pays $3 a 
month for ground rent, but owns the shelter. She locks it at 
night, and it is perfectly secure, for her lock is different from all 
others. It does not take long to learn to sell common ware. 
She expects to sell all winter at her stand, and has to be on her 
feet all the time. She sells on an average from $2 to $3 worth 
a day. 

102. Clothiers. In London there are shops confined to the 
sale of nautical clothes, and some to the sale of theatrical attire. 
B.'s sewers (New York) earn from $2 to $10 per week — piece 
work, of course. Most of it is done by machine. Meritorious 
girls need never be out of work, said Mr. B. ; yet he can always 
get plenty of hands. He has much of his work done in New 
Jersey. Some men make a business of taking it from establish- 



CLOTHIEKS. Ill 

ments, and hire women all through the country to do it. There 
are two kinds of tailoring — custom and slop work. The last is 
subdivided into the cheap slop work and that of the best quali- 
ty, and there are two kinds of establishments for this common 
work — that which is not better done perhaps than the other, but 
for which a better price is paid and received, and done by houses 
of standing and reputation. The other is done by extortionists, 
Jews and Germans, and patronized by their own class. As tai- 
loring is done now, it does not require a regular apprenticeship 
as in bygone years, particularly for those who work by machine. 
I met a girl on the steps, seeking for work, who told me she 
makes 84 a week as operator, when she can get steady work. 
One of the proprietors of L. & B.'s clothing establishment told 
me some of their workmen earn from $8 to $10 a week, working 
by the piece. Much of their work is for California. They em- 
ploy hands most of the year, as they work both for the home and 
foreign market. The great trouble is that the majority of tai- 
loresses are inefficient. Some are widows, striving to support 
their children. Some have dissipated husbands, and are subject 
to constant interruption. Some have not the time to properly 
learn the trade, and, consequently, such workers cannot have that 
labor which pays best, however much they need it. The charac- 
ter of work done by applicants is judged of by turning to the 
book of their former employer, and seeing what prices were paid. 
In hard times, like these, employers try to retain those that are 
dependent on their labor for their bread. The foreman said, in 
good times, there is work enough for all the tailoresses in New 
York. They pay good operators 15 a week — a day of ten hours. 
All the summer work is done by machines. The pressing and 
basting is done by men. The foreman of the S. Brothers' estab- 
lishment says the best place for tailoresses is in the West, where 
there are openings, and they can make money. The only trouble 
is, the poor have not money to go West. All their work is done 
by machines, and all given out. They do not give work more 
than six months in the year, and that barely keeps the girls while 
they are at work. P. & C. have their machines worked by hot 
condensed air. The operators receive from $4.50 to $6. Bast- 
ers are only small girls, and earn from $2 to $3 a week. B. & 
Co., clothiers, give work out, and, of course, pay by the piece. 
Their most busy times are from October to March, and from 
April to September. They do Southern work. Some of the 
workers only earn 82.50 if they are slow, even if they are indus- 
trious and constantly at work. Some of their best hands can earn 
86 a week, but are likely to be at least two months out of em- 
ployment. The prospect for tailoresses is poor. I have heard that 



112 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

some good hands are wanted in Chicago. A great deal of clothing 
is sold there to people from the surrounding country and towns, 
B. does not require any deposit, but a girl must show her book 
from her other employers. They have thousands of applications 
for work. The reason more clothing is not made up out of the 
city is the difficulty in procuring such tailors' trimmings as they 
need just at the time they are wanted. Most clothing establish- 
ments keep a list of those that do not return work taken out, and 
send them to each other. On persons applying to the foremen, 
he turns to his book to see if the names are among the delinquents. 
He thinks girls in service are more certain of making a living, for 
they are paid from $1 to 82 a week for their work, and have their 
board, which would be from $1 to $3 a week, and a competent 
servant need not be out of employment ; while slop work is very 
uncertain, and everything that is made goes for board and clothes. 
Many of these shop girls sleep half a dozen in a garret, on straw 
beds, without sufficient covering. Many might go to the country 
and the West and get employment, bufc they have not the means; 
and, if they had the means to go, might not have enough to come 
back, if they found it necessary. F. D. & Co., clothiers. Their 
girls earn from $3 to $6 per week, paid by the piece, and done 
at home. They give most of their work to men who have ma- 
chines and employ operatives. The prospect for this kind of 
work is poor. Not more than two thirds of the hands in the 
city, in this department of labor, will be retained. When busi- 
ness is good they are able to keep their hands employed all 
the year, except for a few weeks when changing from thin to 
thick work, and vice versa. They sometimes give a girl work 
to do as a sample. A woman told me of three girls occupy- 
ing the room above her, that have a sewing machine. Two 
baste and finish off, and one operates. They work day and 
night, and one she knows is even now earning $8 a week. They 
make flannel shirts, receiving 75 cents a dozen, without putting 
in the sleeves, working the button holes, or putting on the but- 
tons. I saw a girl that receives 87 cents a dozen for making 
flannel shirts. We have seen it stated that " persons possessed of 
machines, who make up large quantities of clothing at very low 
prices, are enabled, by the speed at which they can work the 
machines, to produce sufficient to remunerate all the parties em- 
ployed, at an average of $4 a week." One clothier in Albany, 
New York, pays $3 a week to his hands working eleven hours a 
a day. He furnishes work steadily through the fall, and pays 
men better wages, because they can do more work. The pro- 
prietor of a mammoth establishment in New York, D., writes : 
" We employ women in making pants, vests, shirts, and summer 



CLOTHIERS. 113 

coats, both "by the week and by the piece. When the sewers 
take work out, it is by the piece ; but when the work is done in 
the shop, it is paid for by the week. The wages by the week 
range from $3 to 17. Tfonien thoroughly educated in the trade 
can make about $8 per week, men about $9 — their work is 
heavier. The number of branches in this trade, and the time of 
preparation for each, varies. We never receive learners. As 
the articles are of general use, good hands usually find employ- 7 
ment. The work is brisk from November till March 1st, and 
from May till September 1st. The time of work could be short- 
ened, but at the expense of the laborers' wages. In a city like 
ours, there is always a full supply of hands. About two thirds 
of our women are American. Women could not be employed to 
sell clothing to men." This firm employed, in February, 1860, 
five hundred hands in the shop, and eight hundred outside. In 
Bo Brothers' establishment, " indoor work is paid by the week. 
An agent pays for the outdoor work by the piece. Those in the 
house average $5 per week. Men do heavier work and receive 
$7. Women make vests and pantaloons ; men, coats. They 
work in the same room. The men do the pressing." (I expect 
it is a rule that they shall not speak to each other, for not one 
word did I hear any of them speak in the half hour I spent in 
the room.) "It requires about six months to learn the business. 
They do not take learners. An ability to sew well, and neatness 
with the work, are necessary. They sell most when the country 
is in a peaceful and prosperous condition. They sell most cloth- 
ing to Western customers about the 1st of January, and to city 
retail stores about the 1st of February. They work ten hours a 
day. There is a surplus of hands in New York. They employ 
seventy in the house, and between 2,000 and 8,000 outside. 
The number of Americans is about 20 per cent." Great injus- 
tice is done by women in the country, in comfortable circum- 
stances, who do the work at a very low price, merely to obtain 
pocket money. An English tailor in New York hires girls for 
making pants and coats. He pays one $4, one $3.50, and 
another $3, and they work from 7 A. m. to 7 p. m. There is 
no difference in the prices paid, except when the man's work is 
heavier. Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. Men 
can press better, because they have more strength ; but women 
can stitch as well, if they have the experience. He kept one 
operator at $6 a week in busy times, and $3 in slack times, and 
another at $5 the year round. Some of the poor tailors in New 
York rent a room, occupy a spot themselves, and rent out the 
rest of the room to others at the same kind of work, charging 
fifty cents for seat room for a man and a girl to assist him ; thir- 



114 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

tj-seven cents for a man alone. It is not easy to get good hand 
tailoresses, for most are employed on machines. One firm, that 
employ about five hundred hands, write they pay from $3 to $5 
per week of ten hours a day, and that it requires two years to 
learn the trade. S. & D., manufacturers and venders of boys' 
clothing, write : " Their work is done by the piece, so much a 
garment, and wages run from $2 to $6 a week, of ten hours a 
day- — of course, depending on the skill and hours of the worker. 
The relative wages between men and women are, as sewers, say 
for men, one third more ; that is, as four for the women and six 
for the men. The business of a tailoress is numbered among the 
regular trades for women, and requires somewhat more than the 
average trade time, say one year. They excel as vest makers — 
a branch almost exclusively confined to them. There is no uni- 
form usage in regard to pay. The requisites are good eyesight, 
average strength, and if taste be superadded, the better. Win- 
ter is the best season for those who work for wholesale venders. 
Women are most apt to be out of employment in summer. The 
demand is, at present, less than the supply. There is a surplus 
of vest makers, and a deficiency, if anywhere, in children's suit 
making. It is an occupation less suited to women than trades 
that require more nicety of touch and eye, such as designing or 
wood engraving. The majority of tailor esses in JNew York city 
are German and Irish." A firm engaged in the merchant tailor- 
ing and ready-made clothing business write : " The occupation 
is unhealthy, because the workers are constantly sitting. They 
earn from $2 to $1.50 per week, ten hours a day. We pay men 
better, because they are stronger and more capable, and have 
more experience. Men receive from $9 to $12. It requires four 
years for men to learn the business, and two years for women to 
learn it so as to earn $4 per week. The qualifications needed 
are common sense, good taste, and strong eyes. F?:om March to 
January is the busy season ; but good hands have work all the 
year." B. 0. & S. " give their work out. Their trade is 
Southern. Their spring work begins 1st October, and con- 
tinues until the last of March ; and fall work begins in May, and 
lasts until September. They do not require a deposit, but a 
recommendation from the last employer, and give some work to 
applicants to do as a sample. Some is done by hand, some by 
machinery, Wages run from $3 up. Much of their work is 
done by Germans, whose wives assist them. It is sometimes 
difficult for them to get good hands. The foreman dismissed the 
Jews he found at work when he went there, for he thinks they 
are not reliable. Some get work out, but intrust it to others to 
do, and so it is poorly done. The foreman said many women 



DKUGGISTS AND DRUGGISTS' CLERKS. 115 

spend a day or two out of every week running from shop to shop 
to get ' work. He lias never lost anything by girls not returning 
goods. If they should keep them, they would soon be known at 
the different establishments, and have no place to go for work." 
In Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Isl- 
and, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Ohio, during the year 
ending June 1st, 1860, 36,155 males and 52,515 females were 
employed in making clothing. 

103. Curiosity Dealers. In large cities, a few persons 
may find employment in this way. To the business of selling 
coins, medals, buckles, old-time jewelry, &c, is usually added the 
sale of shells and foreign birds The same persons might engage 
in the sale of stuffed birds and animals, marine plants, minerals, 
and other such articles as are suitable for placing in a museum. 
Many women on the streets of London sell coins, medals, &c. 

104, Druggists and Druggists' Clerks, Some knowl- 
edge of medicines and their nature is requisite to an attendant 
in a drug store. The business is light, and, to some, a pleasant one. 
In a large drug store, one of the clerks might be a young man, 
to attend to night prescriptions. The day business could easily 
be carried on by ladies, if they were qualified. Many articles 
sold by druggists require a chemical or mechanical combination. 
Schools for giving instruction in the art of preparing medicines 
are established in New York and Philadelphia. If enough ladies 
would unite to form a class, we have no doubt that separate in- 
struction would be given them by the professors of pharmacy. 
We hope these schools will tend to prevent abuses in the prosecu- 
tion of the drug business, as those persons will be most patronized 
who are known as graduates of these schools. Dyestuffs, paint, 
hair oils, &c., are sold by most druggists, besides the materials 
directly used in their business. The apothecary's business is 
more confined to the mixing and putting up of medicines, as pre- 
scribed by physicians. Girls that put up drugs are paid by the 
package, and earn from $2 to $5 per week. Most country phy- 
sicians prepare and sell their own medicines. Censors in Great 
Britain visit the stores of druggists, and are required by law to 
destroy any medicines they consider not fit for use. In France 
the regulations are equally strict. In some parts of France and 
Germany, sisters of charity are employed to compound med- 
icines, and some to administer them. Mrs. Jameson, in her 
" Communion of Labor," describes her visits to several hospitals 
in Europe, in charge of sisters of charity, where some of their 
number were employed to fill prescriptions, both homoeopathic 
and allopathic. I find that in most Roman Catholic institutions 



116 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

in this country, some sisters are set apart to perform the duties of 
druggists. In 1776, when Howard visited Lyons, he found 
" there were sisters who made up, as well as administered, all 
the medicines prescribed, for which purpose there were a labo- 
ratory and apothecary's shop, the neatest and most elegantly fit- 
ted up that can be conceived." Lord Brougham, in a speech at 
York, about two years ago, after eulogizing the Protestant sisters 
of charity as nurses, said : " They are the persons who make up, 
who distribute, who administer all the medicines ; they are, as I 
can answer from my own knowledge practically in the matter, 
as well acquainted with the chemical preparations as the profes- 
sional men themselves." In the preparation of fine chemicals in 
laboratories, women are sometimes employed. A druggist told 
me that a person in his business need never be idle. When not 
otherwise employed, he can be making tinctures, compounds, &c. 
It requires four or five years to become a competent druggist. 
The business is one on which hang the lives of its patrons. 
Some druggists put up their goods very neatly, and make them 
look beautiful ; but often sacrifice, to do so, their medicinal prop- 
erties. The standard of druggists is higher in Philadelphia than 
New York. In Philadelphia, many young men receive nothing 
for their services, while learning; but in New York, boys over 
fifteen are generally paid $100 the first year, and more after- 
ward. Many of the best druggists will not make or sell patent 
medicines. In some new parts of the Western country, druggists 
unite their calling with something else ; and are often but a poor 
excuse for druggists, deriving their profits mostly from nostrums. 
One in the business needs a retentive memory. In the census of 
Great Britain, three hundred and ten females are returned as drug- 
gists. Dr. Brandreth has his pills made at Sing Sing. He employs 
twelve females, and pays an average of $5 per week to each one. 
The widow of a deceased druggist and chemist told me that the 
receipts left by her husband she could easily dispose of for a thou- 
sand dollars. We have seen it stated that the average hours per 
day of a drug clerk are thirteen, and his wages $9. The neatness 
of women, their delicacy and attention to details, qualify them 
admirably for the drug business. At the Woman's Infirmary, 
New York, the apothecary's department is entirely in the hands 
of ladies. At St. Luke's, a lady of education and refinement (a 
sister of the Order of the Holy Communion) gives her services 
to the measuring out and dispensing of medicines. At Smith's 
homoeopathic pharmacy, the lady in attendance told me nearly 
the whole in their department of business is in the hands of 
females. They employ men, to press the plants and make tinc- 
tures ; but the distilling of water and alcohol, the pulverizing, 



DRUGGISTS AND DRUGGISTS' CLEEKS. 117 

triturating and diluting, cleaning vials, corking, labelling, and 
stamping, are done by women. It requires neatness, exactness, 
and quickness, to succeed in putting up medicines. The girls, 
while at work, wear clothes that will not suffer from their labor, 
which is not the cleanest in the world. The proprietor of the 
establishment wrote me : " We employ six ladies, and prefer them 
to men, as their work is neater. We pay them from $3 to $6 
per week, and they work from nine to ten hours. There is no 
difference in the seasons, as regards our employment. We pay 
women from the first; and they may learn the part done by them 
in from three to six months. As their work is essentially differ- 
ent from men's, we cannot make a comparison in the prices paid. ?r 
At another homoeopathic pharmacy, I was told they employ a 
few girls to wash bottles, to put on labels, and place them in the 
boxes. They are paid from $3 to $3.50 a week. At a whole- 
sale drug store, one of the proprietors told me they u employ a 
number of women, and pay by the piece, the workers earning 
from $3.50 to $6 per week. Different kinds of work have differ- 
ent prices. They pay from the first. Those who put up perfumery 
earn most. The greater part of the duties in a drug store can be 
performed by well qualified ladies as efficiently as by men. r 
So few ladies are employed in that way, that they might feel 
timid about assuming the responsibilities of a drug store in a city. 
Yet, after they had spent two or three years in a store of others, 
where they were properly instructed, why need they feel any more 
responsibility in a drug store of their own ? I was told that no 
drug broker and no retail druggist employs women. When em- 
ployed, it is by those in the wholesale business. I called on a 
German widow keeping a retail drug store, but who employed a 
young man to attend the store. She regrets that she did not learn 
to compound of her husband. She can sell simple medicines, and 
buys all her own medicines. She had heard of one lady druggist, in 
Switzerland, that performed all the duties of a druggist, and one in 
Germany ; but it is not common to see women in the business there. 
H. & E., druggists, employ women to put up patent medicines, and 
pay $4 or $5 per week. Mr. M., maker of patent medicines, employs 
some girls all the time. When busy, they pay from $6 to $8 a week, 
but at other times $3. It requires some experience to put up pills. 
The pills are mixed, rolled, and cut by men, as it is heavy work 
jwhen done extensively. Their girls get $2.50 the first week of 
their work, and their wages are increased in proportion to their 
skill and abilities. Messrs. K. & K., wholesale druggists, em- 
ploy a woman to put up Seidiitz powders, furnishing all the ma- 
terials, and paying by the quantity. They pay her about $250 a 
year, but suppose she is assisted by some of her sisters at home. 



118 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Mr. H. employs a woman to put up Seidlitz powders, paid for by the 
gross. A smart woman can earn from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. A 
measure is used, containing the right quantity for filling the papers. 
A house that makes extract of ginger, in Philadelphia, formerly 
employed women to put it up ; but they now employ men and boys 
in preference, because of the work they can do at intervals, that 
women cannot do. I called at Mrs. S.'s drug store. The youth 
that stood behind the counter said drug stores kept by ladies, or 
where they are employed to dispense, would not be patronized by 
physicians. He said, if any trouble should occur, from want of 
knowledge or skill in putting up medicines, and the case was 
brought into court, the man that employed female dispensers 
would be punished. Many persons, he says, come to druggists 
for medical and surgical advice, that could not, and would not 
think of consulting a lady, even if she were competent to give ad- 
vice. It would be as unsuitable as for women to shave men, as 
they do in Germany. I sent for the lady, though the clerk urged 
that she had a sick child, and could not leave it. I told her the ob- 
ject of my call. She very kindly talked with me, and gave me 
information, of which I will give a synopsis. She boarded for 
several years after she was married, and as she had nothing to 
occupy her time, she spent much of it in the drug store with her 
husband. Seven years ago he died, and she, by the advice of 
friends, continued the store, She has employed a young man only 
part of the time. She says it involves great responsibility, but 
she is, and feels just as responsible as a man, and would be held 
so in court ; but is not any more liable to indictment, or prosecu- 
tion, than a man. It is something that requires exactness. It 
will not do to trust entirely to the memory. She generally re- 
fers to the book for directions. A youth of good abilities 
can, in from six months to one year, put up prescriptions, and a 
boy, when taken into a drug store, is paid from $1.50 to $2 a 
week for six months. A druggist of New York writes : " There 
is but one college of pharmacy in the city of New York, where 
instruction would be given equally to ladies, if they desired it; 
although, as yet, none have ever presented themselves. Ladies 
have never been employed, to my knowledge, as druggists' clerks 
in this city, or elsewhere in the United States, nor, as I am of 
opinion, in Europe. In one instance, it was attempted in Phila- 
delphia a few years since, by a leading druggist, with a view of 
economy, I believe ; and although he professed to have engaged 
the ladies merely as saleswomen in the fancy goods department, 
they nevertheless were allowed to dispense medicines. It so hap- 
pened that one of these made a mistake, in giving the wrong med- 
icine, which resulted in the death of the patient, a lady of wealth 



119 

and wide acquaintance, and the consequence was the ruin and de- 
struction of the whole business of the druggist. This put an end 
to the experiment in Philadelphia." (This we extremely regret, 
but know that such accidents have occurred from the incompe- 
tency and carelessness of some young men and boys, with less 
disastrous results to the proprietor.) " The business," the writer 
adds, " is, in some respects, quite unsuited to females. It requires 
much real manual labor, its hours are long, and its constant, 
close confinement wears upon the strongest constitutions. I 
have myself lost my health at it, and I know of numerous others 
who have done the same." A lady physician writes : " I do not 
know whether women are anywhere employed as druggists' clerks. 
They are not either in France or England, where special educa- 
tion and license are required. I am not aware of any druggist 
here who would take a pupil, but I have no doubt one could be 
found." 

105. Keepers of Fancy Stores, A fancy store 
pays well when a good connection is established, but it takes 
time for that. Business is moving up street in New York, and 
of course fancy stores with it. Some unite millinery with the 
sale of fancy goods. The prices paid to those who stand in such 
stores, vary greatly. They are given under the head of Sales- 
women. 

106. Gentlemen's Furnishing Stores, A great 
many women are employed in this business, and many more might 
be. The making of gentlemen's robes furnishes in itself quite a 
business in cities; also the making of cravats, collars, hemming 
handkerchiefs, and odd work to be done. Mrs. M. told me she 
has a girl that assists in the house, and stays in the store when 
not so occupied, and receives for her services $6 a month and her 
board. Madame P. pays $8 to each of her operators (ten hours 
a day), and to one superior operator $4. She pays $3.50 a week 
to a button-hole maker. That is made a separate branch of sew- 
ing. Fourteen is the usual number of button holes in a shirt, 
and some employers pay one cent apiece; some, one and a half; 
and for large ones, in which studs or sleeve buttons are worn, two 
cents apiece. Some men are very particular about the make and 
fit of their shirts. Madame P. gets $2.50 a dozen for shirts 
from a store down street, and $4.50 for shirts from a store up 
street. Ordered work pays best. Her great trouble is that she 
does not get constant employment. For awhile she sunk in her 
business from 14 to 85 a week. Mr. P. says, whenever business 
is dull in New York city, it is, of course, wherever work is done 
to supply the city. He takes learners in busy times. Mr. D., 
who employs 2,000 hands in his factory at New Haven, has dis- 



120 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

charged them ail ; also Mr. H., who employs 1,000 ; and Messrs. 
M. & H., who employ as many. He thinks, when business re- 
vives, there will be work enough for all in this line, and even 
more. Shirts are such an essential part of a man's wardrobe, 
that as long as men exist, shirts must be made. With the many 
improvements in sewing machines, Mr. P. has shirts, when cut 
out, given to the operator, and turned from the machine com- 
plete, with the exception of buttons and button holes. No basters 
are employed. All the felling is done by a feller, and all the 
hemming by a hemmer. He furnishes his operators with ma- 
chines. He employs men to cut, because they do it faster than 
women. They cut with a knife twenty-four thicknesses of cloth. 
All factories furnish machines and needles. Troy is the great 
place for making shirt collars. The girls are paid by the piece 
in these factories, and the employers will not permit them to 
work more than eight hours a day, as they do not wish them to 
lose their health. A girl is not retained in these collar factories 
that cannot earn $7 a week — eight hours a day. The machines 
are moved by steam. 

107. Furniture Sellers. A French woman that keeps 
a new furniture store told me that her husband does most of the 
work, employing some men to help him. She only attends store in 
his absence. The lifting, repairing, and varnishing, she thought 
could not be done by women. Called in the store of a woman — a 
German Jew. Her husband is away most of the time. She has 
furniture made to fill orders, and, of course, employs several men 
to make the furniture. I think she sells on credit. I think 
women, are better adapted to the keeping of house-furnishing than 
of house-furniture stores. I was told in a furniture store by a 
saleswoman, that she takes entire charge of the store, cuts and 
gives out damask for making furniture, orders the men, and keeps 
the books ; for which she has a comfortable home with her em- 
ployer, a widow lady, and $5 a week. She says it requires one to 
be amiable and obliging, to possess health and energy, and to be 
a good judge of human nature, to succeed in business ; but thinks 
good conduct and sobriety will insure success in almost anything 
The spring she finds best for selling furniture. Small profits and 
quick sales is her motto. She never credits. She regulates her 
'prices according to circumstances, allowing herself what she con- 
siders a fair profit, and yet doing justice to the buyer. She goes 
into the store at seven in the morning, and remains until ten at 
night. Only a strong, well-built woman, can move furniture. A 
lady that keeps a furniture store told me she sold a great deal 
before the holidays, but will not sell much again until spring. On 
making inquiry of a lady that keeps a furniture store, about the 



GROCERS. 121 

business, she uttered these practical remarks : " Never credit in 
the furniture business, or your money and furniture are both, 
gone. You may succeed, if you have an honest, reliable man to 
attend to the business for you. It is a money-paying business. 
You should have a man that can attend auction, and buy furni- 
ture, and repair and varnish it. Besides, you need a carman, to 
lift and move furniture in the store, and carry it home." We 
would state that a woman can just as well attend the sales of 
house furniture in New York, at residences^ as men, and a car- 
man can at any time be hired to move furniture. 

108. Grocers. The retail grocery business is one that many 
women can and do carry on. It is very common to see the wives 
of grocers in their stores. The store is generally connected with 
or beneath their dwelling — so that it is very convenient for the 
man, and the woman is saved from exposure to the weather, pass- 
ing back and forth from the dwelling to the store. The business 
is light and generally profitable. Much depends upon selecting a 
stand. A good stand is not likely to be idle long. The fall, I 
was told, was a bad season for a retail grocery in New York. 
Many small groceries in New York are owned by men, whose 
wives attend the stores while they are at work. I saw a nice 
little grocer, whose husband is a tailor, and who works at his trade 
in a room back of the grocery. This seemed to be reversing the 
general order of things. The husbands of some grocer women 
keep stalls in the markets, and furnish the groceries of their wives 
with vegetables. I called in a neat grocery store and bought 
some apples. The lady in attendance says she never sells 
liquor, but ail the groceries around there do. She goes to market 
at four in the morning to buy potatoes and apples for her groce- 
ry. The baker leaves her bread, and she goes every evening to 
a baker's and buys cakes. Bundles of kindling wood are sent her 
from the wood yard, and the milkman leaves her milk. She goes 
to Washington market for her meat, and to Vesey street for her tea. 
So she manages. She said, not a cent in the store had been gained 
dishonestly. A grocer woman told me that peddlers interfere 
seriously with her business. Besides, the baker next door had 
gone to selling milk and butter, from which she has always de- 
rived most profit. She has least sale after families have laid in 
their groceries in the fall. Bich people and those in moderate 
circumstances generally purchase their groceries in large quanti- 
ties, it being more convenient and economical to do so ; hence we 
find but few groceries in the best portions of a city. Of course 
a grocer woman must be much on her feet. Most groceries are 
open until ten o'clock at night. Mrs. A. says it is impossible for 
grocer women to make more than a living now, paying $6 and §7 



122 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

a week for rent, and sometimes not clearing more than $3 a week. 
She opens at five in the morning, and closes at nine at night. She 
makes most in summer, because then she does not have to burn 
fuel, and can do with less candle light. What lifting is necessary, 
her son does when he comes to see her. There are too many 
small groceries in New York for any to thrive. I have been told 
that in the majority (even when attended by women) liquor is 
sold. What a crime, to make ferocious beasts of those who are 
stupid enough to buy ardent spirits ! 

109. Junk Dealers. Junkmen go about New York with 
small wagons, across which is a rod. Over the rod are strung sev- 
eral cowbells of different sizes, and from it fly a number of va- 
rious-colored strips. Junkmen are not the same as the rag gather- 
ers, or dealers, but a blending of the two, as they buy on a very 
small scale, and sell again. Part of their rags they sell to shoddy 
manufacturers. A. B., a female junk-dealer, keeps a shop, where 
she buys and sells old metals and rags. The first she sells to a 
man who comes to the door and buys them ; the others she sells 
at a store where rags are bought for making paper. She has no 
system in buying and selling — buying at the lowest prices she 
can, and selling at the highest. Another woman told me she 
buys white rags at three and a half cents per pound, and sells at 
four. She pays so much a pound for old metals, and sells at an 
advance. Other articles, as bottles, glass, bones, cold victuals, 
and grease, are disposed of by junkwomen. The damaged cotton 
picked up by old women is sold to junk dealers. 

110. Music Sellers. Mr. W. does not know of any la- 
dies engaged in selling sheet music, but thinks there may be some 
in small towns. He thinks it would be a very suitable employ- 
ment for them. I called in a music store, B — , where a lady was 
in attendance, and, in the course of conversation, learned she was 
the wife of the proprietor. According to her report, " it is an 
arduous business, and one that requires brains and musical talent. 
People will seldom purchase a piece of music until they hear it, 
and she must try the pianos before a person will purchase or hire. 
The business requires great patience. She and her husband keep 
their store open until ten o'clock at night. They do not sell so 
much when the weather is bad, nor in summer, when the people 
are out of the city. A lady so employed must be able to keep 
accounts, and, when she sells, must require good security, if she 
does not sell for cash. She must also be able to distinguish bad 
from good money." She says, " keepers of music stores will not 
employ- women, however great their capabilities," but no reason 
could I obtain for it. I think it is something, where an opening 
offers, that would pay a woman well. I called at another music 



SELLERS OF ARTISTS 5 MATERIALS. 123 

store in the same city, kept by a lady. She said : " She and her 
sister would not keep a music store, if they had not brothers in 
the business, for she did not consider it any more appropriate for 
a lady to keep pianos to sell than to keep a cabinet wareroom. 
The pianos sometimes need to be repaired and tuned, and no one 
can attend to that without knowing how a piano is constructed, (?) 
The mere selling of sheet music, she thought, might do well 
enough, but selling books would be better. She says it would 
not do well for a woman to tune pianos, as it requires considera- 
ble practice to make one competent." Why might not women 
acquire that practice ? Her selfishness and fear of competition 
were very evident. It is desirable for a music seller to under- 
stand Italian, French, and German, as many of the songs used 
in our country are in those languages. Many pieces of music 
have two or three titles. It requires some time to learn to rightly 
perform the duties of a music seller. The selling of sheet music 
and the selling of pianos are separate branches, and a person in 
one may be totally ignorant of the other. The wholesale and 
retail departments are entirely distinct in large establishments. 
Clerks that attend in the piano department are expected to be 
able to play. A lady is now emplo} r ed in a large piano store in 
New York to try the intruments for purchasers. A lady in New 
York stays in the store when her brother, Mr. D., is absent. He 
paid a boy $1.50 a week for some months while learning, then 
more. A person of ability could learn the business in six 
months' time, or less. Music is always arranged alphabetically 
on the shelves. A boy should be kept to climb the ladder. An 
extensive music seller in Boston writes : " In our direct employ 
is only one female — a cashier. Repeated losses of money, and 
cash continually over or above, induced us four years ago to 
adopt the plan of employing a female to receive the proceeds of 
sales. It has saved us a great deal of money, and lessened the 
temptation to the young men in the store. We would gladly 
employ more women, but the height of our shelves, and the un- 
suitableness of female apparel, prevent." Another music seller 
writes me : " Women are employed in our business, in Germany 
and France, and are there paid at the same rate as men. We do 
not employ ladies in our store, because those of their own sex 
will not buy from them." 

111. Sellers of Artists' Materials. The sale of paint- 
ings, engravings, and artists' materials, form of themselves a 
branch of business in large cities. I know of such a store in 
Philadelphia, kept by a lady. It must be a light and pleasant 
employment. In London there are seventy-nine print sellers, 



124 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

112. Sellers of Seeds, Roots, and Herbs. In agri- 
cultural and horticultural communities, there is always a demand 
for roots and seeds. A large number of seeds are raised and put 
in papers for sale by the Shakers. In stores for the sale of roots 
and seeds, growing plants in jars might be offered for sale, and 
evergreens, with their roots in dirt, enveloped by linen or sack- 
ing. Orders might be given, and filled, for forest and fruit trees. 
Bouquets, also, might be kept for sale. A man in New York hires 
a room about Christmas, and devotes himself exclusively to the 
sale of evergreens for Christmas trees. As field seeds are usually 
sold by the measure, and not put up in papers, women have no 
employment in that line. The proprietor of an agricultural ware- 
house and seed store writes : " Our seed and grain are put up by 
men and boys in the winter months. It is work that might be 
done by women." A lady botanic druggist told me, "there are 
families in the West that make a comfortable support by gather- 
ing herbs; but even the smallest children assist." Those plants 
that bear flowers she has gathered when they begin to bloom. 
Those engaged in gathering commence early in life, and gather 
those growing in their yards and the fields of the neighborhood. 
Another seller of botanic medicine says there are spring and 
fall herbs, and, of course, they must be gathered in their seasons. 
She has a man and his wife gathering herbs, who support their 
family of five children by it, and two girls of another family, who 
earn a livelihood by it. Ladies in the occupation of root, seed, 
and flower selling, would do well to keep garden tools for sale. 

113. Sellers of Small Wares. In England, the word 
" haberdasher " is applied to those who engage in the sale of cord, 
tape, pins, and such articles. In America there is no synony- 
mous word— so we use the expression heading this article, which 
we have seen occasionally employed in the same way. The num- 
ber of women in this business is legion. With many it is a suit- 
able and successful employment. Those whose means will not 
permit them to engage in any more extensive business — who have 
a room well located in town, and not too much competition — can, 
with a small capital, commence a safe and light business. It re- 
quires but little effort, and, with enough customers, will well re- 
pay time and capital. Many a poor woman, unable to purchase 
the articles required, has obtained them to sell on commission, 
and, by industry and economy, earned sufficient, in the course of 
time, to purchase a stock of her own. I called on a lady that 
keeps a variety store. She sells gloves, handkerchiefs, suspenders, 
and such articles to gentlemen, and tape, buttons, &c, to ladies. 
She would rather sell to gentlemen. She has been keeping store 
thirty-five years. Her store is near the river, and she sells much 



SALESWOMEN. 125 

to people coming from the ferry and off the boats. She thinks 
in the South and West there would be many good openings for 
such stores. Spring and fall, and during the holidays, are her 
best times for selling. I called in a small store : I was told by 
the lady that she did not much more than make a living. She 
depends much on her friends and acquaintances for custom. As 
they increase in number, which they do from year to year, her 
custom increases. She finds herself very closely confined at home 
by the business. She does not regulate her profits entirely by 
the value of the articles, for cheap goods sell best where she is, 
and she puts on a large profit. 

114. Sellers of Snuff, Tobacco, and Cigars. A 
lady, keeping a cigar store, said she makes only one third profit 
on her sales. Most people make one half, which, she says, is the 
usual profit on all goods. Snuff gives her the headache, when 
dealing it out, but she thinks she may get accustomed to it. 
She sells most from six o'clock in the morning until nine or ten ; 
and then again in the evening. To know what manufactures of 
tobacco, snuff, and cigars are most popular, is important. 
Having acquaintances assists much, and they are the first patrons 
to one commencing business. A cigar store generally pays well 
in large cities, and, if well located, is sure to succeed. Fall and 
winter are the best seasons for selling cigars ; in very warm 
weather no one cares to smoke. 

115. Saleswomen, Women are quite as capable by na- 
ture to sell dry goods as men, but are not trained so thoroughly, 
nor from so early an age. Suavity of manner and perfect control 
of temper are very desirable qualifications for a clerk. Care, 
judgment, and taste are requisite for success. A flow of speech 
and ability to show goods to advantage are also desirable. Some 
people urge that if females are employed as attendants in stores, 
they will be exposed to dangerous and demoralizing influences, 
and something is said about the corruption of female shopkeepers 
in Paris, by way of warning. Now, it so happens that the cor- 
ruption spoken of does not exist among the store attendants in 
Paris, but among sempstresses. Saleswomen and bookkeepers 
there enjoy as a class a good reputation, but the same cannot be 
said of sempstresses. Sempstresses, we know from the rates paid 
them, and the accounts of travellers, cannot make enough, to sup- 
port themselves ; but shopkeepers can. " One fifth of all the 
female criminals in Paris are sempstresses," says Madame Mallet. 
Some employers complain that women are too sociably inclined, 
too much disposed to chat, where several are employed in the same 
establishment. It may be true ; but are they more so than men 
of the same age ? The languid appearance of saleswomen, we 



126 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

think, arises from their being on their feet so constantly. It is 
injurious to a woman ; and employers should allow them to be 
seated, when not waiting on customers. The number of skirts 
they must wear, and the weight of hoop skirts, does much to bring 
this about. The kind of ladies that saleswoman mostly see in 
first-class stores is calculated to improve and refine their manners, 
and give them a command of language. Besides, it renders them 
more particular in their attire. They want to dress and look 
well. Those acquainted with the art, say there are at last a 
hundred ways of putting up new goods. Some Jews hire a girl 
to stay in their store, and require her to sew, make hoop skirts, 
&c, when not waiting on customers. In the United States, 
women are employed in a variety of stores : dry goods, lace, and 
fancy stores are the most common. In Philadelphia they attend 
in nearly all the largest stores — Levy's, Sharpless's, and Evans's; 
besides, several hundred earn a subsistence as saleswomen in 
smaller stores. Close observation and much experience are need- 
ed to fulfil the duties, but the natural quickness of most women 
gives them a tact seldom equalled by men. The variety afforded 
by the occupation is pleasing, and the labors are light. The 
handling of gloves, tape, ribbon, &c, is undoubtedly best suited 
to the finer and smaller hands of women. The reason there are 
so many young men performing the duties of clerks and salesmen, 
is, that they are lazy, and do not want to perform hard work. 
Another reason is that the majority want to dress well and make 
a good appearance, but have no capital. The price paid for a girl to 
attend store would depend on the size, location, and kind of store, 
how much they sell, and the abilities of the girl. Lady clerks usually 
receive from $3 to $8 per week. The best seldom receive more 
than $6 ; while men receive from 16 to $12. The ladies are obliged 
to dress well, and to do so must retrench in other expenses, living 
in crowded attics or damp cellars, or on unwholesome food. Mr. 
M., Philadelphia, pays his girls from $3 to $6 per week, it depend- 
ing altogether on their qualifications. In Bangor and Belfast, 
Maine, most of those who attend stores are women. They have 
also been much employed in Buffalo, New York, during the last 
few years. It is a regulation of some of the stores in New York 
and Philadelphia, that a salesman or woman shall not sit down 
to rest ; and in some, if they do, they are fined. If there is 
nothing to do, they must take down the boxes and pull out the 
articles, then arrange them carefully in the boxes, as if they were 
closely occupied, to give the impression that much business is 
transacted in the establishment. In fancy stores on the avenues, 
New York, girls get from $2.50 to $4 a week. The stores are 
mostly open from 7 a. m. to 10 p. m. In some localities, most 



SALESWOMEN. 127 

goods are sold in the evening. At a small dry-goods store, where 
I called to make a purchase, the lady told me she used to em- 
ploy a girl, paying her $3 a week, without board. She was in 
the store from 7 a. m. till 9.30 p. m. A girl in a store on Sixth 
avenue told me, she and her companions get from $2 to $5 a 
week. They are there at eight in the morning, and remain until 
ten at night, and on Saturday until eleven or twelve. They are 
not allowed to sit down. A girl in a lace and embroidery 
store on Sixth avenue, New York, told me that girls get 
in such stores from $3.50 to $10, but they must make up 
laces when not waiting on customers. Some receive a per- 
centage. Women are not paid as well as men, even in such stores. 
Time of learning depends on the individual. They are seldom 
paid anything for a few weeks. They have most to do in spring 
and fall ; are in the store from 8 a. m. to 9 or 10 p. m. A 
lady told me she used to get $7 a week in a fancy store. At 
M.'s dry-goods store, New York, the superintendent told me they 
do not pay learners for one month. They have girls who have 
been in the store but a few weeks, that can do as well as those 
who have been in it for years. Some again are stupid, and they 
will not retain such. When girls are qualified, they pay from 
$1 to $10 a week. They prefer having ladies in the store, think- 
ing they know best a lady's wants. They often have occasion to 
change — some get broken down and go away, some get tired, 
some get discouraged, some cannot be on their feet so long, some 
cannot please customers, some are not satisfactory to employers, 
&c. ; so, many changes take place. The ladies all looked to be 
Americans. They are allowed to sit when there is nothing to do, 
and no customers in ; which, I suspect, is rarely, if ever the case. 
I have been told the openings for saleswomen are better farther 
East than in New York. A lady told me she used to get $1 a 
day in R.'s store on Broadway, and the other saleswomen got the 
same price. Then she was on her feet nearly all the time. She 
was there at eight and staid till seven : all were expected to take 
their dinner and eat in the store. Mrs. H. told me she knew 
a lady that stood in a store on Chestnut street, Philadelphia, who 
received a salary of $800 a year. When girls first go into a 
store, they usually get $1 a week during the season (three 
months), then $1.50, and so increase. A pretty good knowl- 
edge of store keeping is acquired by a smart person in six months, 
and now ladies are relieved in large stores from the responsibility 
of making change. Many of the ladies in New York stores are 
Irish. American ladies are more engaged in making artificial 
flowers, bookfolding, &c. I was told rather a novel feature in 
the life of shop girls, viz. : that many board from home, for the 



128 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

sake of having company ; and in addition to this, men, earning 
good wages, but of disreputable character, will often board in 
low houses, and ingratiate themselves into the favor of the girls, 
until they work the ruin of one or more, Mr. D. employs five 
ladies, and pays them from $3 to $5. He prefers ladies. When 
he takes beginners, he pays $1.50 a week, and better wages as 
they become more capable. He has paid $8, and even $9 a week. 
The ladies are in the store from eight to half past eight. He 
allows them to sit when no customers are in and there is nothing 
doing. A lady with whom I talked, and who had stood in a 
store on Catherine street, New York, finds the occupation very 
injurious, because of having to be on her feet so constantly, and 
its lasting from 7 a. m. until 9 p. m, In some stores they 
are obliged to remain until eleven, and even twelve, in busy sea- 
sons On Grand and Catherine streets, New York, they keep 
open very late. She says, when the weather is dull, and there 
are but tew customers, employers are apt to be cross and vent 
their bad feelings on the girls. And in those stores the girls 
cannot sit down to take a stitch for themselves ; but, when there 
are no customers to wait on, they must make up undersleeves, 
capes, and caps for the store. She now keeps a millinery and 
fancy store, and pays her girls $5 a week, and the girls are in 
the store from seven to nine. They make up bonnets, when not 
waiting on customers, and so have a change of posture without a 
loss of time. She has a friend in a Broadway store, that receives 
$1 a day. A saleswoman should know how to make out accounts. 
Ability to speak the French and German languages is a most 
valuable acquisition to a saleswoman in our cities. One discour- 
aging feature in the history of saleswomen is, that their wages 
are not advanced like those of men. In Detroit, Michigan, girls 
receive from $3 to $5 for standing in a store. " In Cleveland, in 
1854, there was one dry-goods store where four lady clerks were 
employed at salaries from $200 to $350 per annum. In one shoe 
store a lady received a salary of $250 ; and one, in another shoe, 
store, $200. In a millinery and fancy dry-goods store, kept by 
ladies, fifteen girls were employed at from $4 to $6 per week. In 
another, kept by a gentleman, ten girls were employed at from $4 
to $6 per week." In the same city, gentlemen clerks usually 
receive from $250 to $600 per annum. At a store on Grand 
street, New York, where a number of 'saleswomen are employed, 
the owner told me he takes girls in the spring and fall. He tries 
them for one month, and such as he finds he can make anything 
of he retains. He then pays them something, and increases their 
wages in proportion to their advancement. Some never rise 
above $3 ; but those who are ambitious and desirous to excel and 



SALESWOMEN. 129 

make proportionate effort, he will pay higher. He has paid as 
high as $12 a week. A merchant keeping a large trimming store 
on Canal street, pa}^s his women from $1.50 to $8 per week, and 
they are in the store from seven in the morning till dark. To 
wait in a store requires experience ; and a lady, in getting: a situ- 
ation, should endeavor to do so through the influence of a mer- 
chant. It is very desirable to have a good location for a store. 
Mr. M. pays his saleswomen from $2 to $6, according to their 
qualifications. At a confectionery the woman told me she gives 
$6 a month and board and washing ; but as she does not keep 
open on Sunday, the girl would have to go home Saturday night 
and stay till Monday. She would be kept busy all the time, from 
seven in the morning till eleven at night, waiting on customers, 
cleaning tables, washing plates, sweeping floors, &c. On most 
of the avenues in New York, merchants do. not sell as much, nor 
receive such a profit, as on Broadway, and employ women be- 
cause they can get them cheaper. In a small variety store, a 
lady told me she had paid $4 a week and board to one who had 
never stood in a store ; but the lady was a friend. She remark- 
ed : " If a person has the inclination, a memory, and common 
sense, she can soon learn. Few are willing to take learners. 
American ladies are not ambitious enough to keep store. For 
one month in summer and one in winter there is little doing." A 
lady confectioner says : " It requires a very honest person to be 
in a confectionery, because small sums are being constantly re- 
ceived and no note taken of them. Girls are paid according 
to their capabilities from $2 to $5, and are in the store from 7 
a. m. to 9, 10, 11, and even 12 p. m., in busy seasons, which 
are about the holidays. It requires some weeks to know 
the prices, where to place the articles, and how to make them 
appear to advantage." A merchant, who employs saleswomen, 
told me he thought women have a better sense of propriety and 
are more particular than men, but they lack judgment and 
promptness. He thinks women do very well as far as they go, 
but there is a boundary line in ability, beyond which women can- 
not pass. The gentleman referred to was indebted to his mother, 
who had kept the store he then owned, for his education and 
position in business. Mr. P., seller of ladies' trimmings, em- 
ploys from twenty to twenty-five saleswomen, who knit and em- 
broider for the store when not waiting on customers. A lady 
who waited in the store told me they change their position fre- 
quently, seldom sitting more than ten minutes at a time. Wo- 
men are paid from $4 to $10 per week, and are in the store from 
half past 8 a. m. to half past 6 p. m. They pay from $2.50 
to $3.50 for board. The business can be learned in from three 
6* 



130 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

to six months. "While learning, they receive enough to pay their 
board. Industry and ambition are necessary for success. The 
prosperity of the business in the future depends on the fashion 
and the amount of money in circulation. Winter is the best 
season for the sale of goods. The women are mostly German ; 
they succeed best in knitting, because they are brought up to it. 
There are openings in the business, West and South. A sales- 
woman told me her business is hard on the back, because of the 
standing, reaching up, and bending. She is paid $6 per week, 
her store companions $3, spending eleven hours in the store. 
A person of business qualifications requires only practice to make 
a saleswoman. She has often heard ladies complain of having to 
purchase small or fancy articles of men. She thought heavy dress 
goods could be better handled by men. She says dissatisfac- 
tion is likely to arise when an employer boards his work hands. 
Mrs. D., who keeps a fancy store, told me that fifteen or twenty 
years ago, it was a rare thing to see a saleswoman in a store in 
New York. She says nearly all of her saleswomen have relations 
dependent on them for support, and if they are thrown out of 
employment for a week it is a serious matter. She pays $5 a 
week to experienced saleswomen, and gives something to learners ; 
all stay in the store ten hours. She thinks honesty, truthfulness, 
intelligence, good address, and a knowledge of human nature are 
the best qualifications. Spring and fall she finds the best seasons 
for selling goods, and thinks the occupation for a lady next best 
to teaching. A merchant in New Haven writes : a We employ 
from two to five women (all American) as clerks, paying from $3 
to $6 per week. To learners we pay $2 per week. The employ- 
ment of women is on the increase. My clerks are employed 
through the year, and work from ten to eleven hours per day. 
We employ women to save expense, and because we believe them 
most honest." A firm in Providence, who sell gloves, hosiery, &c, 
write : " We employ ten saleswomen on an average, and pay from 
$2 to $7 per week, ten hours a day. We pay $2 per week to 
learners. To learn thoroughly requires about six months' prac- 
tice. We consider the prospect good of the occupation being 
opened to more women. One third of our hands we send off in ' 
summer and winter. We find women neater and more steady 
than men, but not so energetic." The proprietor of a large estab- 
lishment in Philadelphia writes: "About thirty women are 
employed by us in selling dry goods. Their health generally 
improves by their active occupation, the proper ventilation of 
our warehouse, and the regular habits to which they become 
accustomed. Wages are from $1 to $10 per week ; they are 
paid less than men because their time of work is shorter, their 



STREET SELLERS. 131 

expenses are less, and their channels of usefulness more circum- 
scribed. A lifetime is needed to learn the business thoroughly, 
although in five years much may be learned. Women are paid 
while learning. Quickness of intellect and of body, good temper, 
and pleasant manners are very essential. Women well instruct- 
ed are generally permanent in an establishment. Our most busy 
seasons are from February to June, and September to December. 
In no season are saleswomen thrown out of employment. In 
winter they spend eight and a half hours in the store ; in sum- 
mer, nine hours. Seventy-five per cent, are of American parents. 
The work is fatiguing at times, but not wearing on the system. 
Another part of our occupation, in which women might be em- 
ployed, if properly instructed, is bookkeeping. Women are 
deficient in generalizing, excellent in concentrativeness. Many of 
our saleswomen have been teachers, and some return to it. They 
have their evenings as their own from 6 p. m. ; they have good 
moral boarding places, and a public library open gratuitously. 
About one half live with parents ; the remainder board at from 
$2 to $2.50 per week, perhaps two persons occupying the same 
room." In Paris, France, young women in stores receive for 
their services their lodging, washing, and board, with from $40 to 
$80 per annum. 

116. Street Sellers. The number of women alone, in 
London, according to Mr. Mayhew's estimate, engaged in street 
sales, wives, widows, and single persons, is from 25,000 to 
30,000. Girls and women form a large proportion of the street 
sellers, and earn from sixty-two cents to $1 a week. The com- 
parative newness of our country, the smaller size of the cities, 
and the greater demand for manual labor have presented fewer 
calls for street sellers. We hope the time may never come when 
our streets will be thronged, as those of London are, with street 
venders, for we consider it not by any means an index of general 
prosperity. More especially do we hope the scanty pittance ob- 
tained by their labor, and the consequent privation and suffering, 
may never be the portion of any of our population willing to 
work for a support. All the wants of a great city can be sup- 
plied by the London street sellers. They are patronized mostly 
by those in the middle and lower walks of life. All the varieties 
imaginable are represented in their sale of articles. Both dressed 
and undressed food can be obtained of them. Home and foreign 
fruits and vegetables of all kinds have each their separate sales. 
Of the eatables and drinkables offered by them for sale, the solids 
consist of hot eels, pickled whelks, oysters, sheep's trotters, pea 
soup, fried fish, ham sandwiches, hot green peas, kidney puddings, 
boiled meat puddings, beef, mutton, kidney and eel pies, and baked 



132 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

potatoes. In each of these provisions the street poor find a 
midday or midnight meal. The pastry and confectionery which 
tempt the street eaters are tarts of rhubarb, currant, gooseberry, 
cherry, apple, damson, cranberry, and (so called) mince pies ; 
plum dough and plum cake ; lard, currant, almond, and many 
other kinds of cakes, as well as of tarts ; gingerbread nuts and 
heart cakes ; Chelsea buns, muffins, and crumpets ; sweet stuff 
includes the second kind, of rocks, sticks, lozenges, candies, and 
hard cakes ; the medicinal confectionery, of cough drops and 
horehound ; and, lastly, the more novel and aristocratic luxury 
of street ices and strawberry cream, at two cents a glass (in Green- 
wich Park). The drinkables are tea, coffee, and cocoa ; ginger 
beer, lemonade, Persian sherbet, and some highly colored bever- 
ages which have no specific name, but are introduced to the pub- 
lic as cooling drinks ; hot elder cordial or wine ; peppermint 
water; curds and whey ; water; ice milk, and milk (just from 
the cow), in the parks. In addition to this information, most of 
which is derived from Mr. Mayhew's " London Labor and Lon- 
don Poor," we will devote the remainder of the article to infor- 
mation from the same author ; and would do so in his words, 
were it not that we would like to condense as much as possible. 
For the substance, we acknowledge, therefore, our indebtedness 
to Mr. Mayhew. In the suburbs of London, some people spend 
their time collecting snails, worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, 
toads, snakes, and lizards, which they sell in the city as food for 
birds. Some, in collecting frogs, which they sell to French families, 
at hotels and at hospitals. Some devote their time to the sale of 
coffee, beer, and baked potatoes. Some engage in the sale of coke, 
some of salt, and some of sand. Nor is literature forgotten by 
the street sellers. " There are," says Mr. M., " five houses in 
London that publish street literature, and six authors and 
poets that prepare such literature in prose or rhyme.'' Some 
streetsellers devote themselves to the hawking of dog collars, and 
some to the sale of rat poisons. Some collect the nests of wild 
birds and the eggs, and sell them. Some sell whips ; and some, 
walking sticks ; but these last articles, we believe, are sold only 
by men. In London, some women sell refuse fruits ; some, wa- 
ter-colored pictures and cheap engravings ; some, coins commem- 
orating public events. Some engage in the sale of children's 
watches. Some sell implements belonging to a trade ; for in- 
stance, tailors 1 implements. Some sell washerwomen's clothes 
lines, pegs, and props ; or kitchen utensils, as tin ware, vegetable 
nets, kettle holders, &c. Some of the street sellers are blind, 
with having taxed their eyes too greatly in sewing for slop shops. 
Some women are co-workers with the men in the sale of crockery 



STREET SELLERS. 133 

and glass ware. They go in pairs (generally husband and wife) ; 
some with a large basket between them, others with separate bas- 
kets. Some sell spar ornaments, and some, china ornaments; 
some, lacs, and some, millinery ; some, thread, tape, needles, &c. 
Quite a number sell women's second-hand apparel. Some sell 
umbrellas; some, men's suspenders, belts, and trowser straps. 
Others again will sell embroidery, stockings, gaiters, shoe laces, 
blacking, pipes, quack medicines, snuff, tobacco boxes, and cigar 
cases ; and in winter some are seen carrying even kindling wood 
to sell. Some women sell dolls, spectacles, wash leather, china 
cement, razor paste, matches, or japanned ware. Some women 
carry sponge in baskets ; they either sell it for money or exchange 
it for old clothes. A few sell musical instruments. Some offer 
guide books, play bills, newspapers, stationery, and jewelry. 
Rabbits, squirrels, parrots, and other kinds of birds are sold by 
them ; and some dispose of dead game. Seeds, flowers, roots, 
and, about Christmas, evergreens, are sold in large numbers. In 
shops, some try to resell slops from kitchens, old glass, metal, or 
worn clothes, &c. ; some, exhausted tea leaves, which they dis- 
pose of to those that dye and redye them to sell again. — We 
give this chapter, because it comprises all and many more than 
the sellers on our streets. The few engaged in street sales 
in our cities are mostly confined to old women, who sit at 
the corners, with stands on which rest store articles, tin ware, 
sweetmeats, and fruits, or a small lot of fancy articles. There 
are several stands of second-hand books and newspapers, or 
shelves of candy, kept by men, but the variety in the business is 
quite limited, compared with the cities of Europe. Mr. Mayhew 
thinks the majority of street sellers in London have been servants 
and mechanics that could not get employment. Some street 
sellers go on foot through the country during the summer, to sell 
at fairs and races. Many others get employment from the far- 
mers in gathering vegetables and fruits for market, weeding gar- 
dens, picking hops, and assisting in haymaking and harvesting. 
In Paris, some women carry bread to sell, in baskets strapped to 
their backs. In New York, I saw two women with baskets of 
vegetables and fruit to sell. I spoke to one, who told me she 
earns sometimes as much as $1 a day, and sometimes but a few 
cents. In winter, it is not unusual to see girls with baskets of 
dried thyme, parsley, and sage, who sell it for culinary purposes. 
I talked with a woman who carried tin ware in a basket. She 
often does not earn fifty cents a day, and will be walking all day, 
not even going home at noon. She buys by the dozen, and so 
gets the articles a little cheaper. I inquired of a girl selling 
radishes how many she usually disposed of in a day. She takes 



134 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

them around only in the afternoon, and sometimes sells to the 
amount of $1.25. 

117. Toy Merchants. This is a business better suited 
to the natural nurses of children than to men. A handsome profit 
is derived from the sale of toys. The busy seasons with toy mer- 
chants and confectioners are about Christmas and New Year. 
Toys might be more extensively made in our country, thereby 
giving employment to many now without it. Women mostly 
stand in toy shops in New York. Even so small an item as the 
eyes of children's dolls produces a circulation of several thousand 
pounds in England. Several establishments in London are de- 
voted exclusively to the manufacture of dolls. 

118. Wall Paper Dealers. Selling wall paper is a 
light, pretty business. In cities it affords a remunerative return ; 
in towns and villages it is sold mostly by dry-goods merchants 
and druggists.. The onlj objection I see to it is, that a step 
ladder must be used to get the paper down from the higher 
shelves ; but a small boy might be used for that, and also for car- 
rying paper home to purchasers. 

119. Worn Clothes and Second-hand Furniture. 
Mr. Mayhew tells us that in London thirty persons are engaged 
in the exclusive sale of second-hand boots and shoes. He men- 
tions one man that, in 1855, was thought to take over £100 
($500) a day. Boots and shoes, too far gone to be repaired, are 
sold to Prussian-blue manufacturers — so nothing is lost. In 
Philadelphia, near Penn Square, may be seen ranged, on an open 
space, a large quantity of second-hand clothes, shoes, dresses, &c, 
for sale. The business, in this country, of buying and selling 
again worn clothes is mostly in the hands of the Jews — perhaps 
altogether. In all countries it is more or less a favorite business 
with them. The time is past when the Jew was prohibited in other 
countries from holding real estate ; yet the Jews in all countries, 
so far as I know, generally retain their property in money, or in- 
vest it in something movable. Old clothes in our country are 
generally given in exchange for new china, glass ware, &c. ; yet a 
number in the large cities pay money. In London all kinds of 
articles are given for them, and then they are taken to the old- 
clothes exchanges, where they are disposed of for money, prin- 
cipally to shopkeepers who deal in the sale of worn clothes. 
Some of these articles are made over, some made smaller, some 
turned, some changed in form; in fact, the greatest ingenuity is 
exercised to employ to advantage the articles used. Second-hand 
articles are not so much sold in this country as in older countries, 
where money is more difficult to get, and poverty greater. Boys 7 
cloth caps and roundabouts, and women's shoes, are made of old 



SECOND-HAND DEALERS. 135 

coats and pants, so worn in parts as to be unsalable. Coats are 
also made of cloaks, bonnets of aprons, &c. Men's and women's 
apparel of all sorts is bought and sold by them. Old umbrellas 
and parasols are bought, repaired, and sold. Silk dresses, if unfit 
to be sold, are used for making children's hoods, facing coats, &c. 
The scraps are used for making quilts. Old woollen dresses, 
whose waists are much worn, are used for making wadded skirts. 
Tailors' and dressmakers' trimmings are sometimes purchased for 
a small sum, and use in making up girls' boods, boys' caps, &c. 
In London, most of women's second-hand apparel is (as it should 
be) sold by women. It is customary for buyers to cry down 
every article offered them for sale or barter, but those they offer 
for sale are magnified into ten times their value. Many of the 
men who go through the streets of our cities buying old clothes or 
giving china ware in exchange for them, take them home and 
their wives repair them. I called at a second-hand variety store in 
Brooklyn. The woman says most people engaged in the business 
are foreigners. The business is not unhealthy. Clothes brought 
in are washed and done over, and their domestics are always 
healthy. Their business is very dull. Ten years ago it was quite 
brisk, but many stores of the kind have been opened in Brooklyn 
lately. She and her daughter go and look at any articles for sale ; 
and if they think the person honest and the price suits, they will 
buy ; so that, if any one should come and claim the clothes as 
being stolen, they could immediately take a policeman to the 
place where they got them. If articles are bought, they examine 
and put a price on them, and get the address of the individual. 
If they find they are not stolen, they then purchase. The poor 
est season for the business is midwinter. They keep their store 
open till ten o'clock at night. I was told at another store they 
sell most clothes in the evening to laborers' wives. In a store in 
New York, the lady says she buys her clothes of Jews that go 
about exchanging china for old clothes. It is very necessary that 
a good locality be fixed on, near a river or bay, on a thorough- 
fare, or in a neighborhood where many poor people live. One 
woman told me she employs two girls and three men to make over 
and do up worn clothes for her store. She pays her girls, each, 
thirty-one cents a day, and they work twelve hours. She sells 
most in the evening. At one place I was told that Mondays and 
Saturdays are their busiest days for selling. They sell most to 
the French, Irish, and negroes. Germans do not like to buy 
second-hand clothes. She regretted that in her present store she 
had not glass cases to keep the dust off her clothes. Her pur- 
chasing is mostly done among the rich, she says, and so it brings 
her a good class of customers. The keeper of a second-hand 



136 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

furniture store told me that she goes to auction herself and pur- 
chases. It is two or three years before the business pays. She 
will go to a dwelling and look at furniture before purchasing. It 
requires a man to do the lifting. She has old furniture repaired, 
chairs reseated, &c, before she attempts to sell them. 

120. Variety Shops. Variety shops, for the sale of coal, 
wood, kindling, candles, matches, and water, are frequently seen 
in the poor districts of cities. They are a great convenience to 
those whose means will not admit of their buying in large quan- 
tities. It costs them more to buy it in that way, yet the keeping 
of shops aifords a subsistence to those who do. 



EMPLOYMENTS PERTAINING TO GRAIN, BIRDS, 
FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES. 

121. Agriculturists. With industry and enterprise, 
what may not woman accomplish ! We have heard of women in 
Western New York, Ohio, and Michigan, that not only carry on 
farms, but do the outdoor work, as tilling, reaping, &c. It is 
said that in countries where the physical labor of women in the 
open air is as great as that of men, their constitutions become as 
stout and capable of endurance. Agriculture is an employment 
safe and profitable, and capable of almost any extension in this 
country. There is a great difference usually between the theory 
and practice of farming. Many agricultural works and periodi- 
cals are published that abound in practical instruction. In graz- 
ing countries stock is raised, and the labor of the people is given 
to making butter and cheese. A variety of soil and difference of 
altitude produce different crops in the same latitude. In the 
United States the raising of hops is becoming a branch of na- 
tional industry, and some women are employed to pick them. In 
England and France large numbers of women are employed to 
pick hops. In England, 52,000 acres of land are devoted to their 
cultivation. There is danger, in picking hops, of getting wet and 
taking cold, which acts upon the system very much the same as 
the ill effects of calomel. But if proper care is used, the work 
is not unhealthy. There is a people's college in New York State, 
where females are received as pupils as well as males. No doubt 
a horticultural department will be formed. We think it would 
be well if more women would devote themselves to agricultural 



BLRD IMPORTERS AND KAISERS. 137 

and horticultural employments. Weeding gardens and attending 
dairies or poultry yards would each furnish work for more 
women than are now employed, and save women from running to 
the cities, which are already crowded to excess with applicants for 
work. Headley, in his " Adirondack Mountains," says : " Twen- 
ty miles from any settlement on Brown's Tract in Adirondack, 
Arnold and his family of thirteen children — twelve girls and a 
boy — live by their trafficking, by sporting, and cultivating the 
field. The agricultural part, however, is performed chiefly by 
females, who plough, sow, and rake equal to any farmer. Two of 
the girls threshed alone, with common nails, five hundred bushels 
of oats in one winter, while their father and mother were away 
trapping for marten. They frequently ride without bridle or 
even halter, guiding the horse by a motion or stroke of the hand. 
They are modest and retiring in their manners, and wild and 
timid as fawns among strangers. " " On the west side of the 
Scioto, just below Columbus, there is planted a field of six hun- 
dred acres of bottom land. Twenty-five German girls follow the 
ploughs, and do the hoeing, for which they receive 62 \ cents 
per day." There are two sisters in Ohio who manage a farm of 
three hundred acres ; and two other sisters, near Media, Pennsyl- 
vania, that conduct as large a farm. 

122. Bee Dealers. A new species of bee, that builds in 
trees instead of hives, is about to be introduced by Government 
from Paraguay. In keeping bees there is no expense. The hives 
can easily be made at home, or purchased for a comparative trifle. 
Their food they seek themselves. " The bee mistresses gain a 
living by selling honey in many rural districts of England." 
Most of the honey used in the United States is collected in the 
South. That to be carried to the North is put in hogsheads. 
Merchants who buy it have small glass jars filled, which are sold 
in markets and groceries. 

123. Bird Importers and Raisers. There are estab- 
lishments in most of the large cities of the United States for the 
sale of birds. The proprietors import and raise them. Most 
imported birds are from Germany. They aie caught by the 
peasants living among the mountains, and sold for a trivial sum 
in small wooden cages. The favorite pet bird has long been the 
canary. In the South the mocking bird is common, and often 
seen caged. But few of our most beautiful birds bear domestica- 
tion. Their wild, free nature unfits them for it In Germany 
there is a class of men who make it a separate business to train 
birds to sing. The bullfinch is the kind most commonly taught 
— perhaps the only kind. They teach in bird classes of from 
four to seven members each. It is done by withholding food 



138 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



from them in the dark and playing on a bird organ or a flute. 
A gentleman told me, he thought few, if any, ladies could be re- 
paid in making a business of bird raising ; indeed, he had known 
several undertake it, but fail. He says, people like German 
birds best, because they learn earlier to sing ; and, you know, a 
purchaser always wants to hear a bird sing before he buys it. 
At a bird importer's I priced birds. He asked for a male canary, 
$3 ; for a female, $1 ; an African parrot, $8 ; green parrot, $5 ; 
goldfinch, $3; and thrush, $2. Mrs. L., a German, who raises 
canaries, told me she could not support herself by raising birds, 
but she knows several men that do. She says the American 
birds are the longest lived — the imported die in about two years 
after reaching this country. Foreign birds are generally devoid 
of strength, and their limbs are apt to turn backward as they rest 
on the roosts. I suppose that arises from their being shut up in 
small cages during the long journey across the ocean, and many 
of them, being caught birds, cannot bear the confinement and 
cramped position. . Another bird dealer attributed the fact of im- 
ported being less healthy than American birds, to their taking 
cold in crossing the ocean. American birds that are not mated 
may live fifteen or sixteen years. The breed, form, color, sex, 
and ability to sing determine their price. It is difficult to tell 
the age of canaries from their appearance. So one is liable to be 
imposed upon by unprincipled dealers, who prefer to sell old 
birds, particularly of the feminine gender. Birds are subject to 
a variety of diseases. Birds are cheapest in the fall, as it re- 
quires more to keep them in winter than summer, and many do 
not wish to be at that expense. Mrs. L. sells most in February, 
March, and April, the breeding season. Prices vary from $2 to 
$7. It does not take long to learn to raise birds, another bird 
raiser told mCj when you know just how to feed them, and the 
proper temperature for them. She sells most in winter. 

124. Bird and Animal Preservers. I notice in the 
census of Great Britain three women returned as animal preser- 
vers ; and I know there are some in Germany, three of whom are 
in Strasbourg. Bird stuffing is a trade in which but few can find 
employment. It would therefore be necessary to have something 
else to rely on in case that should fail. It is thought by some 
to be unhealthy, on account of the arsenic used — particularly to 
young people. The senior of a firm I called on had been engaged 
in it fifteen years without detriment to his health. Females 
mostly prepare the branches of trees, or other fanciful stands, on 
which the birds are placed. The frames are usually of wood or 
pasteboard, covered with moss. I called at Mr. B.'s, and saw a 
young man who works with him. He thinks the work is not un- 



BIKD AND ANIMAL PRESERVERS. 139 

healthy. It is an art in which there is always room for improve- 
ment. Mr. B., who has been at it thirty years, says he is always 
learning something new in regard to it, or making some discov- 
ery in the art. The eyes are manufactured in New York. To 
one practising the art a good eye for form is necessary, and an 
ability to imitate nature closely. The spring of the year is the 
best season ; but all seasons answer, The only danger in summer 
is from insects, A bird stuffer told me he would teach the art 
to one or two persons for £50 ; but he thinks the prospect for 
employment poor. It is difficult to get birds to learn on in win- 
ter ; but in summer plenty can be had. He has had acquaint- 
ances commence in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago. The 
first two could not make a living. He knows of two young la- 
dies that have learned it merely as a pastime, I called on a 
French lady, Mrs. L., who stuffs birds and animals. She taught 
the art to a barber, who made a great deal of money by it. He 
paid SI 50 for his instruction, spending every other day at it for 
two months. A Cuban, who owns seven hundred slaves, paid 
her the same amount. He wished to learn, that he might pre- 
serve birds he could obtain while travelling in various countries. 
She has received several letters from Boston requesting her to 
come there and stuff birds for a museum that is being commenced. 
She was the personation of health, but she complained that she 
suffered with rheumatism. She trembled much — she thought 
from rheumatism. May it not be that it is the result of arsenic 
that she has got into a pimple, or where the skin was broken ? 
The work, of course, requires a firm hand. She showed me a par- 
rot, done, she said, in one hour, for which she was to receive $3. 
A German book is written on the subject that contains directions. 
The information can be obtained in English from a little work 
called " Art Recreations.'' The ingredients are often sold in 
drug stores already mixed, it can be done at ail seasons. Mrs. 
L. thinks one could become proficient in two months' constant 
practice. A gentleman went to California, and made a large col- 
lection of birds; stuffed them, and sent them to various European 
countries. In the four years he was at it he made $60,000. She 
sent six hundred to a museum in Paris a short time ago. She 
thinks St. Louis may present an opening. Mrs. L. knows a man 
who has been employed in stuffing birds and animals in the mu- 
seum of Strasbourg from the age of fifteen to seventy-seven, and 
is a very corpulent man, being nearly as. broad as he is long. 
That she gave as an indication of its healthfulness ; but it may be 
that he is bloated from the arsenic, as it has that effect. She 
says even poor people will pay to have a pet bird stuffed, when 
they have not a dime to buy bread 



14:0 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN". 

125. Florists. The rearing of flowers has ever been a 
charming pastime to many of our sex. When the pleasure can 
be combined with profit, it is well. The cultivation of flowers is 
a taste whose beneficial results are not sufficiently appreciated. 
When the cares and troubles of life begin to press upon men and 
women, they are apt to neglect the cultivation of flowers, when it 
might absorb some of the cares that burden their hearts. Vines, 
roses, and ornamental fruit trees cost but a small sum, and yet 
how much they add to the beauty and comfort of a place ! Most 
of the choice roses of our country are from cuttings imported from 
France. They are brought over in jars. Many, of course, die on 
the voyage. The variety is very great. The selling of roots, 
plants, and bouquets is quite remunerative in some places. Much 
depends on the knowledge and skill of the florist, the location of 
his gardens, and the fondness of the people in the community for 
flowers. It is a delightful business for a lady, if she has men to 
do the planting, digging, and other hard work. In Paris, there 
is a market devoted to the sale of flowers. In most of the mar- 
kets of our large cities, are exposed for sale pot plants and bouquets, 
also shrubs and evergreens. A florist told me that he employs 
two women in winter to make up bouquets and wreaths for ladies 
going to evening and dinner parties, concerts, and other places of 
amusement. It requires taste and ingenuity. He pays each $5 
per week. They can make up wreaths to look like artificial flow- 
ers. A woman on Long Island makes a living by raising flowers 
that are sold in New York. I was told that some lady has estab- 
lished a horticultural school on Long Island. Florists in and 
near cemeteries are apt to find sale for flowers and plants. Hence 
it is common to observe gardens and hot houses so located. I 
rode out to a florist's near Brooklyn. He says the business is not 
so good as it was, because the Germans in Hoboken raise flowers 
and sell bouquets for sixpence that he could not sell for twenty- 
five cents. The man does not send bouquets to the city, as it does 
not pay. Their profits are mostly derived from the sale of choice 
fruit trees raised at Flushing. They sell bouquets at their hot 
houses from a shilling up to $5. They derive most profit from 
flowers in winter. A florist's occupation is healthy, and affords 
much pleasure to one fond of flowers. Yet it requires close at- 
tention to business. In England it was formerly customary to 
serve a seven-years' apprenticeship at the business, but three or 
four years will answer .very well, if an individual gives undivided 
attention to his business, and is with a superior florist. A knowl- 
edge of botany is necessary to a florist. It requires considerable 
taste to make up a bouquet, and therefore is very appropriate to 
women. A knowledge of colors and their artistic arrangement is 



FLORISTS. 141 

essential ; also a natural taste for flowers, and some patience. 
Making bouquets, wreaths, &c, is slow work. The stems of flow- 
ers for bouquets are cut very short, as most of the nutriment of 
the stem is lost to the succeeding ones by cutting long ones. 
Artificial stems are added to the natural ones, and are usually 
made of broom straw or ravelled matting. Mrs. F., the wife 
of a florist, says the wives of most florists assist their husbands 
in making up bouquets, wreaths, and baskets. She thinks, if a 
florist had enough to do to employ a lady, he would pay her $3 or 
$4 a week. She has often thought a small volume might be 
written on the flower business in New York. She says no one 
has an idea of the amount of money expended for flowers. Mr. D. 
used to send out SI, 000 worth of flowers on New Year's morning. 
It is a very irregular employment. Some days she sells a great 
many for balls, parties, and funerals. One might learn to make 
bouquets, if they have taste and judgment, by a few months' prac- 
tice. The flowers that are sold at different seasons vary greatly, 
and the value of them depends much on their age. Mrs. F. has 
sold a few baskets of flowers at $50 apiece. She sells many flow- 
ers for Roman Catholic churches about Easter. Mrs. R. says 
florists prefer to have men, because they can work in the garden 
or green house when not cutting or putting up flowers. The Ger- 
mans have run the business down in New York. A florist named 
Flower writes : " We employ from two to four women tying buds, 
hoeing, weeding, &c. ; in winter they help about grafting. They 
are paid fifty cents a day, of ten hours. Women so employed are 
German born. The employment is healthy. Men get seventy- 
five cents a day, as they can do more work ; but the principal 
reason for employing women is, that we can hire them cheaper 
and like them better for light work. Women could do all parts 
of our business, if they had a fair chance with men, and would 
improve the chance. One year would give a general knowledge, 
but five would be better. A good, sound constitution, and indus- 
trious habits, are the best qualifications. Women that want such 
work can find plenty of it ; but outdoor work is too hard for 
American women." Another florist writes : " In Europe, where 
women are sometimes employed in fruit or vegetable gardens, 
their wages are usually about half a man's. Women (chiefly 
Germans) are employed in this country by farmers to pick fruit, 
vegetables, &c, by the quantity. At light work, done by con- 
tract, women, I believe, can make as much as men. Several 
years would be necessary to learn the business ; some branches 
of it might be learned in a few weeks. The requisite most needed 
for women to work in green houses, is a change of fashion. Their 
dress unfits them altogether for moving about in crowded plant 



142 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

houses. Were their dress similar to the men's, I see no reason 
why they would not be equally useful in other departments as well 
as this. If that should ever happen, they would, in my opinion, 
be worth as much as men ; for the work is mostly light, and ladies, 
having a natural taste for flowers, would soon learn it. If you 
have gone through green houses, you cannot but know the diffi- 
culty of doing so without breaking everything. Men, at this kind 
of work, are not fully employed in winter." A lady florist 
writes : " I sometimes think my nervous excitability is to some 
extent caused by an excess of electricity, derived from the earth 
or flowers with which I work." 

126. Flower Girls. Flowers are the mementoes of an 
earthly paradise. They are said to be " the alphabet of angels, 
whereby they write mysterious things" — the mysteries of God's 
love and goodness. Earth would be a wilderness without them. 
Girls sell flowers most profitably at opera houses, theatres, and 
other places of amusement. They buy of those who devote them- 
selves to the raising of flowers, and arrange them into bouquets. 
A number dispose of flowers on Broadway ; and, summer before 
last, I observed a French woman at the Atlantic ferry selling bou- 
quets to people waiting for the boat. A florist told me he dis- 
poses of flowers to girls who make up bouquets and sell them. One 
of them pays $500 rent for her room. It yields a handsome profit 
when a person has a good stand. He would like a stand at the 
opera house, but a great many others are looking forward to it. 
Some pay for the privilege, others obtain it by being known to the 
managers. I was told by a man who supplies bouquets that he pays 
to florists from $8 to $10 a day for flowers, and then makes up his 
own bouquets. I have been told that at some hotels in Germany, 
girls pass around the table at dinner, and give bouquets. Such 
recipients as feel disposed, pay a small sum. 

127. Fruit Growers. If American women would only 
turn their attention to the cultivation of fruits and flowers for 
market, instead of giving it up to ignorant foreigners, how much 
better it would be ! A few hundred dollars would make a very 
handsome beginning ; and those who do not have so much at their 
disposal, could get their friends to advance it. At Shrewsbury 
and Lebanon, much fruit is put up by the Shakers, and sent to 
New York for sale. Women might have orchards, raise fruit, 
and send it to market. Mrs. D. owns a farm, and does not dis- 
dain to graft fruit trees, superintend their planting, gather fruit, 
send it to market, &c. ; and she realizes a handsome profit. The 
grafting and budding of fruit trees might be done very well by 
women, and also the budding of ornamental shrubs. " Miss S. B. 
Anthon}^" says the Binghampton Bepublican, " resides at Roches- 



FRUIT VENDEES. 143 

ter, and supports herself by raising raspberries from land given 
to her by her father." I have been told that on one acre of land 
near New York city a thousand dollars 7 worth of strawberries can 
be grown. In New Jersey and Delaware, women are employed 
to gather berries for market. If a lady is within a few miles of 
town, and has facilities for raising and sending fruit to market, 
she will not be likely to fail in meeting with ready sale. Berries 
bring a good price in the markets of a city. In Cincinnati, from 
May 21st to June 1st, 1847, 5,463 bushels of strawberries were 
sold, and near St. Louis is a gentleman that has some hundreds 
of acres of strawberries in cultivation to assist in supplying the 
St. Louis market. The drying of fruit affords employment, and 
generally well remunerates time so given, if carried on exten- 
sively. 

128. Fruit Venders. Flowers are formed to please the 
eye and indulge the fancy ; but fruits are a healthy and import- 
ant article of food. Some women sell fruit in market ; some, at 
stalls in the street ; some, in fruit shops or groceries ; and some, 
from baskets, going from house to house. Most dispose of small 
fruit, such as berries — some wild and some cultivated. The 
ferries in large cities are very good stands for sellers of fruits 
and sweetmeats. Places of amusement and the entrance to 
cemeteries, are also. I talked to one apple woman, who says 
her business is a slavish one. Her stand was at the Atlantic 
ferry, New York. When she goes to her dinner, she gets the gate 
keeper to mind her stand. She earns, on an average, $1 a day. 
She rises, gets her breakfast, and starts to market by five o'clock. 
She remains at her stand until nine o'clock at night. She sells 
the greatest quantity of fruit in the spring and fall, when peo- 
ple are most apt to be making money, and so permit a little self- 
indulgence. She sells least in winter. I saw a woman on the 
street selling fruit and flowers. When she is out all day, she can 
generally earn from fifty cents to $1. Another fruit seller told 
me that she makes a good living. She has been at her stand 
eight years. She sells most fresh fruit in summer ; and in winter, 
about the holidays, most dry fruit and nuts. In the coldest 
weather she remains in her basement, heated by a stove, where 
she stores her fruit at night. Her grapes are brought in on the 
cars, put up in pasteboard boxes. Her location is excellent, 
for the working class of people pass in the evening, returning 
from work, or in their promenades. I talked with an old woman 
at an apple stand, who told me she often sells $1 worth of articles 
in a day, but seldom makes a profit of more than half. She sells 
most fruit in summer, but most cigars, candy, and nuts in winter. 
She says there is a stand on every block, in that part of New 



144 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

York. Hers is a good location, because so many men pass. In 
wet weather, she does not sell much. She is shielded in winter, 
by sitting in a hall near, where she can keep an eye on her stand. 
She lives near, and while she goes home to dinner, her husband 
sells for her. An apple woman, in New York, told us, she has 
kept her stand in Washington park for seven years. She remains 
at it all the year. If any other fruit vender should trespass on 
her bounds, a policeman would soon send him or her off. Another 
old woman, keeping a fruit stand, told me she makes a comfortable 
living at it in summer ; but in winter she stays in a confectionery 
store, and gets 810 a month and her board. At another fruit stand, 
on asking the old lady how she got on, she burst into tears, and 
replied, very poorly, scarcely made enough to keep her alive. A 
professional honor exists among fruit women, and a desire to sus- 
tain each other in their rights. A wholesale fruit dealer writes 
me that it takes from two to four years to learn the business, when 
carried on extensively. 

129. Gardeners, The strength and energy of people, in 
northern climates, have led them to excel in the rearing of fruit 
— not in imparting a more delicious flavor, but in the quantity, 
the fulness, and the size of the fruit. In the balmy air and under 
the sunny sky of the South, vegetation develops more rapidly and 
more luxuriantly. He who adds to the list of beautiful and fra- 
grant flowers, or improves some variety of fruit, enlarging, or ren- 
dering it more luscious, will be remembered as a benefactor. 
Gardening is a pleasant and healthy occupation to those that love 
outdoor life. A woman can no more be healthful and beautiful 
without exercise in the open air, than a plant can when deprived 
of air and light. We learn, from Mr. Howitt's " Rural Life in 
England," that " there are on the outskirts of Nottingham, upward 
of five thousand gardens, each less than the tenth of an acre. The 
bulk of these are occupied by the working classes. These gar- 
dens are let at from half a penny to three halfpence per yard." 
German women are often employed, near cities, to weed gardens, 
gather vegetables, and other such work. " In Hereford, England, 
there are no fewer than six annual harvests, in each of which 
children are largely employed: 1, bark peeling; 2, hay; 3, corn, 
4, hops; 5, potatoes; 6, apples; 7. acorns. Add to these, bird 
keeping in autumn and spring, potato setting and hop tying, and 
the incidental duties of baby nursing and errand going." 

130. Makers of Cordial and Syrups. Women who 
live in the country, and have small fruit, would find it pay well 
to make cordials, berry vinegars, &c. There are some establish- 
ments where it is made, and women are employed to gather the 
fruit. The people of the Southern States have depended on the 



SEED ENYELOPEES AND HERB PACKERS. 145 

North for these articles, hut we presume a change will be wrought. 
The abundant growth of small fruit in the South will enable the 
South before long to meet the demand. We think there will be 
many openings of this kind, in the South and West, for many 
years to come. Some manufacturers of ginger wine, bitters, syr- 
ups, cordials, and grape wines, write : " In reply to your circular 
we say — We do not employ any women in our business, although 
we indirectly furnish employment for several hundred, during the 
various fruit seasons, in gathering most kinds of fruit, which we 
use in our business. Many of these fruits are wild, which we 
buy at a specified price. The gatherers control their own time, 
and their earnings will vary from fifty cents to II each, per day. 
It would probably require the labor of abcut six hundred for six 
months of each year, in gathering the amount of fruit which we 
use. But as we do not directly employ them, or know anything 
about the general business of those thus employed, we are unable 
to give further particulars." 

131. Root, Bark, and Seed Gatherers. When the 
grass is bowed by the sparkling dew, and the hills shrouded in 
mist, plants exhale most freely their sweet odors. They are then 
gathered and sold to manufacturers, who prepare from them oils, 
essences, and perfumeries. An old Quaker lady on Tenth street, 
Philadelphia, keeping an herb store, told me that she purchases 
her herbs mostly of men, but some women do bring them to sell. 
It requires a knowledge of botany to gather them, and the stage 
of the moon must be observed. Digging roots, and gathering 
plants, at all seasons, is a hard business. At another herb store, 
I learned that the prices paid gatherers depend much on the kind 
of herb, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the season when it is 
gathered. A woman may earn $1 a week, or she may earn as 
much as $10. The roots and herbs are bought by weight. 
Many are purchased fresh in market, but some of the gatherers 
dry them. They are sent from different parts of the Union to 
the cities and towns. One told me that she would rather pur- 
chase herbs and seed put up by women, for they are neater and 
more careful with their work. She sells most in spring and fall. 
An Indian doctress told me barks must be gathered in the spring 
and fall, when they are full of sap ; and roots, when the leaves 
are faded or dead. She sometimes makes $20 worth of syrup 
in a day. She says the business requires some knowledge of 
plants, experience in the times of gathering, amount of drying, &c. 

132. Seed Envelopers and Herb Packers. In a 
seed store in Philadelphia, we found, they employ women in 
January and February, at $2.50 a week, to put seeds up in paper 
bags, seal them, and paste labels on. They go at eight in the 

7 



146 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

morning, and remain until dark. At a large drug store in Phila- 
delphia, we were told they employ nine women. They have 
seven distinct branches for the women, and separate apartments 
for each branch, consisting of weighing and putting up powders, 
sorting herbs and roots, putting up liquids, &c, &c. The 
women earn from $3 to $5 a week, and spend nine hours, from 
eight to six, having an hour at noon. In busy seasons they remain 
till eight or nine, and receive additional wages. There is no- 
thing unhealthy in the business. They are paid $3 a week from 
the time they are taken to learn, and deduction made for 
absence. A seller of botanic medicines in Boston writes me : "He 
employs women in putting medicines in small packages for the 
retail trade, bottling the same, and labelling. He pays $5 a 
week to his women, and $3 a week while learning, the time for 
which is six months. Common sense, neatness, and integrity are 
the qualifications needed. The girls work from nine to ten 
hours. He will not employ any but American women. He 
pays men $8 or $9, because they can take them off, and put them 
upon work that girls cannot do. Women would be paid better 
if they were stronger, and did not need so much waiting upon 
in the way of lifting and arranging their work. Rainy days 
they want to stay at home, or, if they come, it takes half a day 
for them to dry their clothes. Men they can depend on in all 
weather. Women might keep their books, if their crinoline was 
not too extensive : that alone would bar them from the counting 
room. Women are inferior only in physical disabilities. Girls 
are good for nothing until after sixteen years of age ; and nine in ten 
will get married as soon as they are fairly initiated in work — 
hence the time spent by women in acquiring a business education 
is to a certain extent lost — lost to their employers, but of assist- 
ance to them in the education of their children.' 7 Mr. P., 
botanic druggist says : " There are but three establishments in 
New York, for this business, and twelve women would be quite 
enough for them. They put up herbs in packages. One day's 
practice is enough for a smart person. The women are paid 
from $3 to $5 a week." At the United States Botanic Depot 
they employ one girl, and pay her $4 a week. She only works 
in daylight. Mr. J. L. employs two girls to put up botanic 
medicines. He has men to cork the bottles. They work ten 
months in the year. Nothing is done in December and January. 
They pay $4 a week, of ten hours a day. In Louisville, St. 
Louis, and Cincinnati, few women are employed in this way. 
Some seedsmen and florists near Boston employ four ladies in 
enveloping seed. One of the ladies writes : " We presume more 
ladies are employed in Europe to put up seed than in this 



GKAPE GROWERS AND WINE MANUFACTURERS. 147 

country. The employment is not unhealthy. We are paid 6 
cents an hour, and work by the hour. To learn the part the 
women do, requires about two hours. Judgment is most needed, 
Employment of this kind is increasing, there is a demand for 
female labor in the seed department." A seedsman, in Roch- 
ester, writes : " We employ six women in making paper bags, 
paying 25 cents per hundred. Boys are employed at about the 
same wages. We have work from July to January. The girls 
take their work home. We use some boys, because their work 
benefits their families equally as much." 

133. Sellers of Pets. In Paris there are stores for the 
sale of dogs and cats. In London, the sale of dogs is mostly on 
the streets, or at the residence of the raiser. The aristocracy of 
England maintain 500,000 dogs and a large number of cats ; 
conseqently food must be provided for them. The sale of birds 
is common. Gold and silver fish, white rabbits, Guinea pigs, 
squirrels, tortoises, fawns, lambs, and goats, are sometimes sold 
in seed and flower stores. Flowers and birds are the favorite 
pets of ladies in the United States. Everything of this nature 
is sold to some extent in the markets and on the streets of our 
cities, but generally at the houses of those who devote themselves 
to the business. 

134. Wine Manufacturers and Grape Growers. 
Many persons are becoming interested in the culture of the grape ; 
and some are spending time and money in experimenting. Long- 
worth of Cincinnati has realized a fortune from his operations. 
Belle Britain says : Ci In Longworth's cellars are 700,000 bottles 
of wine. Mr. L. informed her (?) that we have in this country 
at least 5,000 varieties of the grape, and his vineyards yield from 
600 to 700 gallons to the acre." The color of wine depends on 
the color of the grapes from which it is made. In several of 
the States, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Alabama, vine- 
yards are flourishing, and many new ones are being planted out. 
The variety of soil and surface in our country is such that there 
is every probability of success. As yet, only two kinds have 
been much grown. No doubt a large number of women will, 
in the course of a few years, be employed in the cultivation of 
the vine and the manufacture of wine. One can soon learn, • 
with a few instructions in each season, the proper culture of the 
vine. A great deal of the work in the vineyards of France and 
Switzerland is done by women. Women do better that men, 
because their fingers are smaller and more nimble. The want of 
intelligent culture has been the greatest barrier in the introduc- 
tion of graperies into our country ; but such is the number of 
foreigners now among us that have a practical knowledge of the 



148 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

business, we need fear no want of workmen. Many, too, have 
not been willing to invest capital in an uncertain enterprise. 
Wine manufacturers in Orange county, N. Y., write : " We have 
not employed women to any great extent in our business. There 
are some branches of the business in which women might be 
suitably and profitably employed, where those branches are ex- 
tensively carried on. The bottling process, including cleaning 
of bottles, filling, putting on foil, labels, &c, could be done by 
women as well as men. Women could pick the grapes, and cull 
out the green and poor berries, and prepare them for the press. 
They are employed for this purpose in Europe. The reasons 
why we have not employed women in these branches are, we 
bottle not more than one sixth of our wine ; we manufacture 
principally for church communion and medicinal purposes, and 
the principal demand for those purposes is by the gallon — conse- 
quently we send it out mostly in casks. (Some wine growers 
bottle all.) The men, whom we necessarily employ by the 
year or month in the cultivation of the ground, vines, &c, are 
of course employed in the season of the vintage, bottling, &c. ; and 
in hurried times, such as the time of picking the grapes, we get 
such additional help as is easiest obtained, generally boys and 
girls, with sometimes women. Women are in such demand here 
for household labor, that, unless sought for at the proper time, 
March and the 1st of April, and hired for the year, it would be 
almost impossible to obtain them. The wages generally paid 
are from $5 to $7 per month, mostly $5 and $6." Another 
grape grower writes, in answer to a circular : " I do not employ 
female help in my business, except for a few weeks during the 
time of tying up the vines and in gathering the fruit, for which 
I pay 50 cents per day, without board. Women might be 
employed to quite an extent in this business, which is increasing 
in the country to a wonderful degree." 



KAISERS, MAKERS, PREPARERS, AND DIS- 
POSERS OF ARTICLES OF FOOD. 

135. Bread Bakers. Nearly all the bakeries in New 
York are attended by women. T could not learn of any women 
being employed in bread bakeries to mix or bake, but they are 
in Germany and France. In France the bakehouse girls enter 
ovens heated often to 300°, and, it is stated, sometimes to even 



BREAD BAKERS. 149 

400°. Bakerooms are usually of such great heat as to be injuri- 
ous to the health of any but the strongest and stoutest. Some 
establishments have day and night bakers. The night bakers are 
up ail night, and must have their bread ready by 5. 80 a. m. 
The day bakers go in at 7, and turn out a batch of bread at 
11 a. M. Bakers spend on an average seventeen hours at 
their work, and this no doubt accounts partly for the absence of 
women from the occupation in this country : seventeen hours out 
of the twenty-four are too many for any woman to be on her feet. 
In this country the bakers are robust, hearty-looking men, and 
mostly Germans. Their average wages are $6 a week. Some 
bakers have a scaly eruption produced by frequent contact of the 
skin with flour. Inhaling the flour in mixing bread I have heard 
is unhealthy. Some women might object to working in the same 
room with men, and baking is certainly very warm work in sum- 
mer. In most European cities the price of bread is regulated by 
the Government. The cost of materials and the state of the 
market regulate the price. A fine is the penalty for a violation 
of the law. In this country, bakers regulate the price of bread 
by the kind and quality. No law is enforced specifying prices. 
Some years ago an attempt was made in New York to have bread 
sold by the weight, but the bakers all opposed it. They might 
have been tempted to put something heavy in the flour. In large 
cities some establishments are devoted to one branch only of the 
business. Baker's bread is more used in free than in slave States. 
In Northern cities some families prepare their bread, cakes, pies, 
and meats, and send them to bakeries, where for a small sum they 
are cooked. It saves a vast amount of labor. Some bakers use 
potatoes in making up wheat bread. I never knew of rice being 
used by bakers in this country, but know it is by some bakers in 
Paris. The modes of baking bread, and the kinds of bread used, 
vary not only in different, but in the same countries. " Some 
bakers give the impression their bread is made by women," said 
a lady in a bakery, to us, " but it is not. A woman could not 
make up two or three barrels of flour in a day. Men are just as 
neat bakers as women could be." At three bakeries I was told 
by the employers that they pay their girls who attend the shop 
$7 a month, and board them, but do not have their washing done. 
From several girls that stood in bakeries I learned that they re- 
ceived from $6 to $10 a month, and their board. Only one of 
the number got her washing done without extra expense. The 
girls were expected to keep the counters, waiters, jars, and floors 
clean. They must be in the bakery by 5 o'clock a. m., and stay 
until 10 p. M. Some women require the girls to sew when not 
waiting on customers, and some require them to sweep and keep 



150 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



the room clean, and some even to wash the shop windows. Girls 
that stand in bakeries receive no better compensation than house 
girls. A foreman of the baking department, generally receives 
$8 a week, and his boarding. Girls are usually paid from the 
time they enter. A knowledge of reading, writing, and figures is 
considered sufficient. I was told by one lady in a shop that girls 
attending bakeries usually receive from $8 to $10 a month, with 
board, and some, also, get their washing done. They are not re- 
quired to keep the books for those terms, and the bakeries are few 
in number where female employees keep the books. I was told by 
an Irish woman that in Ireland there are few or no women at- 
tending bakeries and groceries. At one bakery a girl told me she 
finds it very bad to be on her feet all the time. She could not 
stay constantly in a bakery for one year at a time, she gets so 
weak from excitement and fatigue. She says most Germans keep 
their bakeries open on the Sabbath ; but the Americans have too 
much respect for the day to do so. On Saturday night, bakeries 
are often open until 12 o'clock, and sometimes later. 

136. Brewers. I wrote to a lady, whose name I saw in 
a directory as a brewer. She replies : " You wish to know if I 
work at brewing, personally. I do not at present, but have done 
so, and worked hard the man's part ; but my means are such now 
that I can do without. I have men employed, and a clerk, &c, 
&/C. I am a widow, and superintend my business, and understand 
all that is connected with it. I suppose it is not necessary to 
dwell longer on the subject, as I am out of the working part now. 
I am sixty-two years of age." 

137. Candy Manufacturers. "There are three hun- 
dred confectionery manufacturers and retail dealers in New York 
city. Twelve establishments are devoted exclusively to the man- 
ufacture of candies. In some, as many as a hundred hands are 
employed in busy times. During the busy season, there are en- 
gaged in the manufacturing houses about five thousand persons 
of both sexes, though a very much larger number, probably some 
thousands, are indirectly supported by it, the paper-box makers 
being generally busily employed, and many children gaining a 
livelihood by hawking candies through the streets. The city of 
New York is the headquarters of the confectionery trade, supply- 
ing as much as all the rest of the Union together, and distribut- 
ing the results of its industry to all parts of the United States, as 
well as to Canada, most of the West India Islands, Mexico, Chili, 
and many other places. It is estimated that fully $1,000,000 
worth of confectionery is made annually in this city ; and by that 
term we mean preparations of sugar, chocolate, jujube paste, &c, 
but exclude many articles such as ice creams, jellies, blancmanges, 



CANDY MANUFACTURERS. 151 

pastry, and other delicacies, which would sum up this amount to 
perhaps double. Two of the principal houses manufacture daily 
between them four thousand pounds of candies, at prices varying 
from 14 cents to 50 cents per pound, the average being about 20 
cents." The coloring matter of foreign candies is generally showy, 
and of a poisonous nature. That of American manufacture is not 
of such brilliant and permanent colors, but more regard is paid to 
health in the selection of coloring matter. At confectioners' in 
London, classes of young ladies are taken and taught the art of 
making confectionery. Some candies are made by stretching 
over a hook, some must be shaken in a pan over a charcoal fire, 
and rolled on tables with marble tops. I was told at S. & P.'s 
(a wholesale house) that they are most busy from August 1st to 
20th of December, and from March to June. They take learners 
for a. week, to see if they are fit for the business, and if they are, 
reward them for their time. It takes but a short time to learn 
the part done by girls. They pay experienced girls from $3 to 
$6 a week. The girls work ten hours a day, and if longer, they 
are paid extra. Lately they have kept their girls until ten 
o'clock at night. It requires taste and invention to envelop 
fancy confectionery, but is not very reliable for constant employ- 
ment. S. & P. employ ninety girls in busy times. At another 
place I was told they will not take Southern orders, for the 
Southerners will not buy, and have not the money to pay, if they 
would. The fancy candies go through three or four processes, 
and so the girls must work in the same room* as the men who 
paint them. The girls sit while at work. R. pays by the 
month, and keeps his girls all the year. He says labor is more 
poorly compensated in New York, in proportion to the rates of 
living, than in any city in the Union. He thinks some girls 
should go from the cities into country places, and enter into ser- 
vice. H. says a person of any intelligence can learn in two or 
three months to paint candies. He used to employ girls to put 
gilding on, paying $2 a week — ten hours a day ; but if a girl can 
paint well, she can earn $4 or $5 a week. He knows several German 
girls in the city that do. The candy flowers, he says, are made 
by hand, the fruit moulded. A lady confectioner told me that a 
woman who ornaments fancy candies is poorly paid, and it is dirty, 
sugary kind of work. Yet she acknowledged that candies must 
be kept on a clean table and handled by clean hands — otherwise 
they would not look well, and consequently not sell readily. 
The wives of German manufacturers do most of that kind of work. 
A confectioner told me, candy is never made in this country by 
women, but it is in England. He said the dust of the powdered 
sugar and the gases of the coal render it unhealthy. In large 



152 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

establishments most candy is made by steam. The making of 
candy be thought even too laborious for men. The teeth of candy 
manufacturers are often decayed from the frequent tastiug of 
heated sugar. One candy manufacturer writes me : " We em- 
ploy six girls in making candy, and do not think the business 
unhealthy. Wages raDge from $1.25 to $4.50 per week — ten 
hours a dsij. Men's wages are from $4.50 to $9. It requires 
from three to five years for men to learn. Women's part is 
learned in one year. The prospect of employment is good for 
a limited number. Fall is the best season, but they are always 
employed except during part of the winter. In some branches 
of the work women excel." At a manufactory of gum drops and 
candy rings, I saw a boy who receives $3 a week for making the 
rings, and a girl who receives $2.75 for picking gum drops, i. e., 
loosening the sugar in which they are incrusted while being made. 
They work from 7 a. m. to 6 p. m. 

138. Cheesemakers. A great deal of cheese is made in 
Central and Northern New York, and some in Ohio, Vermont, 
and West Massachusetts. Making cheese is a chemical operation, 
and requires experience. It is made in all civilized countries. 
I talked with an old gentleman who had been in the cheese 
business nearly all his life. He said a farmer's wife is the best 
help in cheese making. In making cheese, seven eighths of the 
work is done by women. A man usually places the cheese in the 
press, and removes it when it is dried sufficiently. The occupa- 
tion is healthy. Women are paid from $1.75 to $2 a week and 
their board. Some people employ men, because they can go to 
work on the farm when not making cheese. The business can be 
learned in from six weeks to two months. When learning, girls 
give their work for instruction, but have their board. Neatness, 
good health, judgment, and common education, are desirable for 
a cheese maker. An individual must be able to reckon the 
pounds, weigh the salt, and regulate the temperature of the milk 
and curd by the thermometer. The first advice given by a lady 
who taught to make cheese was, " Keep your vessels clean." The 
prospect of employment in this branch of work is good, for it 
is difficult to obtain good cheesemakers. The best seasons are 
from the 1st of March to the last of November. The number of 
hours given by a girl to her work depends on the contract made 
— generally eight hours — sometimes ten. In most places cheese- 
makers have more leisure than house girls, but some employers 
expect them to do housework when not employed about the 
cheese. Some farmers hire girls who devote themselves exclu- 
sively to cheese making during the season for it. Some have 
the afternoon after the cheese is put in the press, and the jars, 
&c, are cleaned, until time to milk in the evening. The morn- 



COFFEE AND CHOCOLATE PACKERS. 153 

ing milking is usually done before breakfast, and the cheese made 
after breakfast. It requires until about two o'clock to get through. 
When cheese is put in a press, nothing further is necessary until 
it is ready to be removed. It remains in the press twenty-four 
hours. Most farmers have their cheese made on Sunday morning 
as on other days. The girls have Sunday afternoon or evening, 
according to contract. Some farmers do not make their cheese 
on Sunday, but retain the milk until Monday morning, and make 
it into butter. Women are best adapted to the work, and em- 
ployed mostly because they can be got cheaper. The majority 
are Irish women. They are usually put on a footing by their 
employers, and eat at the same table. So little spinning and weav- 
ing are done now in the country, that the female members of 
farmers' families generally do the milking, unless the farmers 
have grown too wealthy and proud to have their wives and 
daughters so employed. Some dairymen make, with the aid of 
their families, all the cheese they use and sell. Milk should be 
drawn from a cow as rapidly as possible and w T hile the cow is eat- 
ing. One milker should be employed for every ten cows. Milk 
is very sensitive. Dairymen will make more by having the 
cream remain on the milk than by taking the cream off for churn- 
ing, at the rate butter sells this winter (1861). Where the 
cream is used, an inexperienced hand would find it more trouble- 
some to make cheese. Twenty-three million pounds of cheese were 
exported last year from the United States. American cheese is, 
in England, taking the place of English cheese. A German 
cheesemonger told me he makes the Limburg cheese — a pre- 
paration which has been known about eight years in this coun- 
try. He was putting up some to send to New Orleans. It 
was very soft, and I thought the smell very offensive. He gets 
American cheese of a Yankee girl, to whom he pays 880 a year. 
She uses the milk of sixty cows. She works at it but eight 
months. During four months of the year but very little cheese 
is ever made. The arrangements of some cheesemakers for pre- 
paring the article are very complete. 

139. Coffee and Chocolate Packers. B. S. & W., 
Philadelphia, employ women in packing parcels of essence of 
coffee, spices, vermicelli, &c. They make paper cases, pour the 
article in through a funnel and ram it down, then label and pack 
the cases in boxes, which are nailed up ready for delivery. One 
or two persons obtain a livelihood by cutting the labels to paste 
on the boxes. They are paid fifteen cents a thousand for this 
work, and are able to support themselves by it. The women are 
paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to $6 per week. The work 

rooms are airy and comfortable. Females were formerly more 

7* 



154 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

employed than at present to put up coffee ; but as coffee is now- 
ground every day at most factories, and as it is considered best 
when just ground, less is put up than formerly. Messrs. L. & B., 
New York, employ girls to put the articles in papers, pasting labels 
on and sealing them. They work by the piece, and earn from 
$3 to $7 a week. The odor might be disagreeable to some, but 
persons get accustomed to it, and it is quite as healthy as most 
work. There are not over one hundred and fifty women so em- 
ployed in the State of New York, yet such packing is generally 
done by women. It is customary to pay by the package. The 
girls change their dresses on coming to the workroom of L. & B. 
They do not work with the men, but with some boys who fill 
boxes with the same articles. L. & B.'s girls have employment 
all the year. They never have any difficulty in getting hands. 
I saw a man who makes up essence of coffee. A lady was as- 
sisting him to put it in papers. At another factory I was told they 
pay by the week, from $1.50 to $4, according to the industry, 
quickness, and practice of the worker. It is not unhealthy work. 
They give employment ten months of the year, but at present 
have little to do. It requires but a few weeks to become expert. 
In some establishments girls stand or sit, as they please, while 
at work; in others they are all required to assume constantly 
whichever posture the foreman directs. At W. & Son's two 
small girls are employed, who each receive $2.50 a week. 
There is one factory in Cincinnati, one in St. Louis, and one in 
Chicago. 

140. Cracker Bakers. At M.'s the young man said 
fancy crackers could be made by women. In making soda, 
oyster, and some other crackers, the dough is kneaded by ma- 
chinery. In some establishments the dough is rolled out and con- 
veyed to the oven by machinery. In a cracker bakery I was 
told the women might be employed in packing and selling 
crackers. It would not require all the time of one woman to 
pack for a large bakery. A cracker baker writes us : " We em- 
ploy no women, and do noi; see that they could work to advantage 
in our business.'' Women could do all the work now done by 
men in this line, but I suppose considerable opposition would be 
experienced, except by ladies who have sufficient capital to carry 
on business for themselves. 

141. Fancy Confectionery. Most confectioners sell, 
in addition to their fancy candies, imported fruits; and a few keep 
cakes. Some also keep fruits preserved in brandy or their own 
juice ; and some keep in addition pickles, oysters, sardines, &c. 
Some confectioners merely make sweetmeats — some sell them, 
and some both make and sell. In cities, confectioners usually 



FANCY CONFECTIONERY. 155 

furnish the refreshments for both public and private entertain- 
ments. A manufacturer of confectioneries in New York told me 
that in busy times he employs fifteen girls ; but at that time 
(January, 1861) only half as many, for they have no Southern 
orders — the people in the South are doing without candies. The 
part done by girls requires no special training. He pays girls 
for their labor from the first. They pack, pick gums, envelop 
in fancy papers, fill boxes, &c. He pays $3 a week for those 
that have some experience, and keeps them ten hours a day. He 
gives the making and painting of fancy candies out to those that 
have families, and who do it at home. W., of Philadelphia, pays his 
girls, eight in number, $1.50 a week for the first two or three weeks, 
then from $>3 to $4. Making common candy is said to be too hard 
for women. They assist in the finishing of fine candies, as rolling 
and covering chocolate nuts. They put the fancy candies in 
French envelopes, and cut the silvered or gilt paper that gives 
the finish. They can sit or stand as they please while at work, 
but while enveloping mostly sit. They work ten hours. It is 
rather a light business. M. employs fifty women in putting up 
and packing candies. He pays them, from the time they begin, 
$2 a week. They learn in two or three months. He pays then 
from $4 to $5 a week. A lady told me she was paid in one estab- 
lishment $8 a month and board. A girl in a confectionery told 
me the prices usually paid girls are $7 or $8 a month, with board 
and washing, and the girl is expected to keep the accounts. A 
lady in another store said summer is the poorest season for con- 
fectioneries, as people do not like to eat candies, because it makes 
them thirsty ; but in those confectioneries where soda water and 
lager beer are kept, there is more or less custom during the summer. 
They keep open till ten o'clock at night, and all day Sunday. Sun- 
day is their most profitable day. She knows a girl that is paid 
$5 a month in the Bowery, with her board, or $7 without. To 
be kind and obliging, and have the faculty of pleasing the little 
folks, are the best qualifications for the business. Prices paid de- 
pend on the responsibility of the employed. Some that keep the 
books receive $5 a week without board, most others receive 
$1.50 or $1.75 per week and board. Judgment must be used 
in the selection of a stand. A lady who keeps a small confec- 
tionery and fruit store in Williamsburg, says she does not make 
much on cakes and bread, only half a cent on a loaf of bread. 
She says it is best not to trust any one for pay — that children often 
come and say they want so and so, their mother says she will pay 
on Saturday ; but Saturday comes, and no pay ; and if they go for 
the money, the parents will say, u Come again," and put it off from 
time to time, until they become discouraged, and give it up alto- 



156 THE EMPLOYMENTS OE WOMEN. 

gether. M — s, French confectionery and chocolate cream manu- 
facturers, take learners at the proper season, which commences in 
August. They employ some girls to paint fancy candies. H. 
says one must commence at the very first step, and gradually ad- 
vance — that to learn the business requires a long time. He pays 
four girls $5 or $6 a month each, and gives them their board, 
for selling confectioneries and waiting in his saloon. At S — 's 
confectionery I was told that the small fine candies are made by 
steam. They are made in pans, which are shaken back and forth 
over fires, the gas of which is very injurious, and cannot be car- 
ried off by flues. Their girls make so much noise, laughing and 
talking with the men, and waste so much time, that they are re- 
quired to work on the first floor, the same as the store. They 
are paid from $1.50 to $2 a week. They are paid by the week, 
because they do their work better than if paid by the quantity ; 
besides, it is less troublesome. They are paid for overwork (re- 
gular hours being ten), and some earn as much in that way as 
by regular wages. The girls pick gums, separate gum drops, 
put candy in boxes, &c. C. employs girls to paint, put up can- 
dies, and attend store, and pays $1.50 and $2 a week. Most of 
the painting is done by French and German men, who are paid 
from $10 to $12 a week. It requires a long time to acquire 
taste and experience; one, in fact, can be always improving. C. 
thinks girls are not likely to find constant employment in the 
kind of work he gives to females. A French confectioner told 
me he had employed a woman to make chocolate cream, paying 
$3 a week for ten hours a day, and could employ her all the 
year, as the demand for chocolate cream is very great. S. em- 
ployed one girl to sell candy, paying $5 a week. She was at the 
store at 7.30 a. m., and remained till 6 p. m. in winter and 8 p. m. 
in summer. She did not keep the books, but washed the jars 
and case, and swept back of the counter, and dusted several 
times a day. Talked with a girl who stood in a confectionery 
store on Broadway. She knew a girl on Chatham street who 
received $12 a month and her board. She herself received $9 
a month and her board, but not her washing. The proprietor 
told her she must sew for his family, when not waiting on 
customers. It seems that it is not an uncommon requisition. 
They have but few customers until about 11 o'clock, and he ex- 
pected her to accomplish more sewing than a sempstress who 
gives all her time to it. The young lady is in the store by 
7 o'clock in the morning, and remains until 11 o'clock at night. 
Any one wishing to commence a confectionery can learn from 
the wholesale dealer of whom she purchases how to regulate the 
prices of sweetmeats. Mrs. W. wants a girl to wait in her saloon, 



FANCY CONFECTIONERY. 157 

will give $8 a month, with her board and washing. She would 
be required to sew, when not waiting on customers, and would 
have to wash the jars and cases, keep the counter clean, and dust 
and arrange the articles in the window every morning. She 
would have to be in the store at seven, and remain until twelve 
(seventeen hours). In large confectioneries girls stand while 
picking gums used in making gum drops. They are mostly made 
in summer. There is now (December) a great demand for girls, 
as there always is about the holidays. Those now at work are 
kept three hours over time — from seven to ten — and paid extra. 
The chemicals used in making some confectioneries are un- 
healthy, but women have nothing to do with that, except in 
painting candy toys. A confectioner in Boston, who employs 
four American girls in attending store and making goods, writes : 
" We consider the occupation very healthy, never having had a 
case of sickness with girls while working at this business. Some 
are paid $3 and $4. per week, working ten hours a day ; others by 
the quantity, averaging $1 per day. Male labor is paid for, ac- 
cording to the knowledge of the business, from $6 to $15. Girls 
could not do the work, and the work that women do it would not 
pay to have done by male labor. It requires a long time and a 
great deal of practice to learn the whole business, but that part 
done by women is learned in a few weeks. They are paid some- 
thing while learning. Honesty, industry, and a good education 
are the most desirable qualifications. Spring and fall are our 
most busy seasons. In midwinter we do not have many at work. 
Retail stores require most help in summer. New York requires 
most hands, especially women; but the demands are now very 
small, the trouble at the South being the main cause. They are 
not strong enough to do some parts of the work. The large 
towns are best for our business." A lady in a fancy confectionery 
on Broadway told me she receives $8 a month and her board, 
and is paid by the month. She thinks many diseases are brought 
on women by having to stand so much, as they do in confectioneries, 
bakeries, and dry -good stores. Women that have stood in any kind 
of a store before, and have business qualifications, are paid while 
learning. There is never any difficulty about obtaining qualified 
hands. She finds the work very laborious, and complained of 
having to be in the confectionery and saloon from seven in the 
morning until twelve at night. In some saloons the attendants 
are up until 1 o'clock (eighteen hours !), and are on their feet most 
of the time. A confectioner in Concord, N. H., writes: " We 
employ from five to ten girls (because we find it most profitable) 
for helping make, rolling up, and packing lozenges and pipe 
candy. Also for standing in the confectionery. The work is 



158 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

very healthy. We pay about sixty-seven cents per day, and they 
work from six to ten hours. No man employed, except one who 
takes charge. There is a prospect for employment so long as 
children cry for lozenges. The girls are American, and work at 
all seasons. They are as well paid, according to the cost of liv- 
ing, as mechanics in this place. Women are superior to men in 
rolling up and packing lozenges. They pay for board $1.75 per 
week." 

142. Pish Women. In the United States, where every 
one has a right to fish in the rivers and lakes, there is a fair open- 
ing for those in this line of business. But it is only in the spring 
and fall that fish are much eaten. They are not considered 
healthy in the warm weather of summer. A pound offish is said 
to be in nutritive power equal to eight pounds of potatoes. In 
the United States, according to the census report of 1850, there 
were engaged in fisheries 20,704 males and 429 females. The 
fishwomen of Philadelphia have long engaged in the selling of 
shad, and are to be seen in great numbers on the streets of the 
city, and even when not seen are likely to be heard crying fish. 
At one time they had a large market devoted exclusively to the 
sale of fish, but it became a nuisance, and the city authorities had 
it torn down; yet the women, possessed of strong local associa- 
tion, were not to be so routed. They are still seen sitting before 
their tables of fish in the neighborhood of where the market stood. 
Much money has been realized by the fishwomen, some of whom 
are said to own property of considerable value. What a lesson 
to patient industry ! u From the time of Louis XIV. to the 
present, fish have been sold in Paris exclusively by women. They 
are now remarkable for the urbanity of their language and pro- 
priety of their conduct, having risen high in the scale of respect- 
ability during the last half century." " On the coasts of the de- 
partment of Somme there are certain fish, the shrimps and * vers 
marius,' which are exclusively reserved to the young girls and wid- 
ows." On the coast of Great Britain thousands of women are em- 
ployed in the herring, cod, mackerel, lobster, turbot, and pilchard 
fisheries. Women and children rub salt on the fish to be cured, with 
the hand. When cured, women pile them in stacks from four to 
five feet high, and as wide. Women are paid, at Newlyn, for this 
labor, 3d. an hour, and every sixth hour receive a glass of brandy 
and a piece of bread. Many are also employed in obtaining oys- 
ters and canning them ; and on the return of whaling vessels, 
numbers of women assist in preparing the cargoes for market. 
In New York, fish are mostly sold by men, who drive about in a 
little wagon containing fish, and blow a horn, crying out now and 
then the kind of fish they have for sale. 



MARKET WOMEX. 159 

143. Macaroni. Macaroni is moulded and dried. Girls 
then pick out the whole sticks, and put them in boxes. The 
broken pieces are all thrown together in a barrel, then ground 
and moulded over. It is very easy work, and requires no learn- 
ing. They are paid from $2 to $3.50 a week, working ten hours 
a day. The girls I saw, stood while at work. 

144. Blapie Sugar, The cheapness of sugar made from 
sugar cane has almost annihilated the existence of maple sugar, 
except as a sweetmeat. The peculiar flavor of maple molasses 
and sugar makes them much loved by some people. The trees are 
tapped early in the spring, when the sap first rises. After suf- 
ficient water is collected, it is put on and boiled until of the con- 
sistence required. It is slow work and pays poorly, but can be 
performed by women capable of the heavy labor involved in car- 
rying, lifting kettles, and stirring. 

145. Market Women. Mrs. Childs says, in her " His- 
tory of Women," " On the seacoast of Borneo fleets of boats may 
be seen laden with provisions brought to market by women, who 
are screened from the sun by huge bamboo hats. In Egyptian 
cities, the country girls, closely veiled, are frequently employed in 
selling melons, pomegranates, eggs, poultry, &c." In the southern 
countries of Europe it is common to see women riding to market 
on donkeys, laden with marketing. We learn from " London 
Labor and London Poor," that there are 2,000 persons employed 
in the sale of greenstuff in the streets of London, as water- 
cresses, chickweed, groundsel, turf, and plaintain. The cresses 
are eaten by people ; the other articles are sold for birds. We 
may divide market women into two classes — those that raise or 
have raised the products they sell, and those that buy to sell again. 
The articles of the first are generally genuine and of fair price. 
Vegetables, poultry, eggs, and butter, with fruit, both green and 
dried, are carried to market, and there the market women, placing 
them on stalls or retaining them in their wagons, wait for pur- 
chasers. This class mostly supply the markets of towns and vil- 
lages. Their articles are usually fresh and wholesome. There 
are thirteen markets in New York city where everything is ob- 
tained at the second or third remove from the producer. It is 
estimated that there are 1,300 huckster women attending the 
New York markets. The members of some families are engaged 
in the sale of different articles : one will sell eggs ; another, vege- 
tables; another, poultry, &c. It is said that better meat and 
vegetables are brought to Philadelphia than to New York mar- 
kets. In New York there is a larger population requiring arti- 
cles of a cheap kind. We think market women, considering their 
habits and modes of living, probably do as well in a pecuniary 



160 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

way as any other class of women. Their wants are few, their 
habits simple, and their occupation — though an exposed one — 
healthy. The variety of seeing new faces, and chatting with those 
similarly employed, yield more comfort and content than most 
women's work. They take in but a few pennies at a time, yet 
have their regular customers, and, in prosperous seasons, many 
besides. I will give an extract from my diary of a visit made to 
several of the New York markets : " I saw some women selling 
fruit ; some, vegetables ; and some, tripe and sausage. I judge, 
from the appearance of most dealers, it is not unhealthy. Most 
of the women were far advanced in life, particularly those who 
sold vegetables. They all complain that they do not sell so 
much since the commencement of the hard times. How is it ? 
Do people buy less, and so eat less ? or is less wasted in their 
kitchens ? or are some unable to buy meat and vegetables at all ? 
Here I would state the remark of a druggist : that, as times are 
hard, people do not indulge in so much rich food, nor in a surplus 
of it ; consequently there is less sickness, and so little medicine 
sold that the druggists are discouraged. This druggist has since 
sold out, and moved to the country. Most of the market women 
looked to be Irish. One strong Irish woman told me that Amer- 
ican women cannot bear the exposure in cold weather, and rent 
their stalls through the winter to men. They make their appear- 
ance in March with the flowers and early fruit. Butter is sold 
exclusively by men in Washington market, New York, and is 
more profitable than anything else. There is considerable differ- 
ence in the class of custom in the different markets in New York ; 
but the poor are usually more in number than the rich — so the 
markets frequented by them may receive as great a profit as 
where a smaller number of better customers attend. Some women 
regulate their sales to have a percentage, but many sell for what 
they can get, without regard to the amount of profit. I find those 
selling vegetables, buy of farmers who come early, and leave a 
supply for each seller in case she is not there. Any vegetables 
they may have left are locked up in boxes, or barrels, or covered 
over and left on the bench. The gates of the market house are 
closed and locked up at one o'clock every day except Saturday, 
with the exception of Washington and Pulton markets, which are 
open all day, and the first mentioned all night. Watchmen are 
about the markets at all hours of the day and night, and in some 
markets an extra fee is paid by the sellers to secure attention to 
their stalls. At two o'clock in the morning, Washington market 
is fully lighted, and the farmers begin to arrive to sell to grocers. 
The grocers usually buy from four to five in summer, and from 
four to six in winter. Boardinghouse keepers mostly buy from 



MEAT SELLERS. IG1 

seven to nine o'clock. Families buy during any of these hours, 
or later. All the markets are open by half past three. Fulton 
market is rather warmer than the others because of the stoves and 
ranges used for making coffee, cooking oysters, &c. Ladies do 
not come to market so much in winter as in spring and summer. 
I think the vocation of market selling must be very healthy, when 
the venders are comfortably clad, and have stoves, as many of 
them do. Market women live to a great age. Vegetables injured' 
by frost or long keeping are sold at a lower price. As a general 
thing, less is sold in market during January and February, than 
any other months. In spring time the market presents the most 
inviting appearance, for the stalls are then freshly painted, and 
flowers and fruit exhibited to advantage on them. Mrs. B, told 
me that a woman who sold flowers in Fulton market had made a 
fortune at it. Some of these sellers let other women have flowers 
and fruit to take over the city to sell, and reap a profit in that 
way. One old lady told me she always made 12j- cents profit on 
her goods, they being pocket-knives, combs, &c. The stalls are 
sold or rented. One woman told me she paid 12 J cents a day for 
her stall ; another, 9 cents ; and this must be paid for even on days 
when they are absent from market. Another woman told me 
that she got a permit for the use of a stall in Washington market 
when it was first built, and not long since she sold it for $1,500, 
and the owner pays a tax of $2 a week besides. She paid $200 
for the stall at which she stood in Fulton market, and pays a rent 
of 75 cents a week. She makes a living by selling smoked salt 
fish. The processes through which produce must pass from the 
producer to reach the consumer, might be avoided by permitting 
farmers to remain longer in the city, and furnishing them with a 
place for their teams and produce ; but now they must all leave 
by ten o'clock, and can scarcely feel that they have a place to put 
anything down while they are in the city. In England are women 
who shell peas and beans at so much a quart. I have seen books, 
spectacles, canes, pocket-books, caps, shoes, hose, china, and even 
old clothes for sale on the streets, and around or in the market- 
houses of Philadelphia and New York. 

146. Meat Sellers. In markets and in meat shops of 
the United States, women may occasionally be seen selling meat. 
They are generally the wives or the daughters of butchers. They 
no doubt assist in cleaning tripe, and making sausage and souse. 
On the streets of London are nearly one thousand sellers of dogs' 
and cats' meat. Most of them are men. This meat is the flesh 
of old worn out horses, which are bought, killed, cut up, boiled, 
and sold by those who make it a business. Mrs. M. told me of a 
woman that sells meat in the New York market. She has made 



162 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



a fortune by it. She stands in market, and sells, and orders her 
hired men to cut it up as desired. Mr. W. told me that women 
are employed at the pork houses in Louisville, in putting up hogs' 
feet, to send to New Orleans. Less meat is sold in summer than 
winter. I have been told that curing meat is too heavy work for 
women, on account of the lifting. Besides, they would get wet 
from the brine used ; but some German and English women do 
pickle meat, and some even buy and sell stock. The late census 
of Great Britain reports twenty-six thousand butcheresses. 

147. Milk Dealers. Kindness to animals always indi- 
cates something good in the heart. Life, in its every form, 
should be precious to us. Cows yield much less milk, and of an 
inferior quality, on the eastern than western continent. In 
Canada and some countries of Europe, the milk of goats is sold, 
and considerably used. In some parts of Rome it is customary 
for dairymen to drive their cows in every morning, and around to 
the houses of their customers, when the milkman draws from the 
cow into the vessel the desired quantity. In Belgium it is not 
uncommon to see milkmaids following their little wagons, con- 
taining vessels of milk, and drawn by dogs. Mayhew stated, in 
1852, that in St. James's Park, London, eight cows were kept in 
summer to supply warm milk to purchasers ; four in winter, and 
the number of street women engaged in the sale of curds, was 
one hundred. A lady called with me in a milk depot. The man 
has his milk brought in on the cars. Milkmen pay their women 
from $6 to $7 a month. They begin to milk about five in the 
morning, and the same hour in the afternoon, so that it may cool 
before being placed in the cans. Those hired to milk do house 
work or kitchen work in the intervals. When milking is done in 
the afternoon, the men that work on the farm, and the proprietor 
himself, assist. In some places where butter is made for market, 
the churning is done by horses and dogs. A milk dealer told me 
he sold to those who wished to sell again at cost price, four cents 
a quart ; to other customers his price is six cents. At one depot, 
Williamsburg, the dealer was counting over an immense pile of 
pennies. His milk comes from New Jersey, seventy miles from 
New York. He crosses two rivers every night at twelve o'clock, 
to receive his milk at the Jersey depot. He sells at six cents a 
quart. To those who buy to sell again, his price is five cents a 
quart. He told me a separate freight agent is employed on some 
trains to take charge of the milk sent on the cars. Milk does 
not often sour while being brought in. Cream is brought in cans 
placed in large tubs of ice. He pays for freight, forty cents a 
can. Cream usually sells at twenty-five cents per quart. He 
sells twice as much milk in summer as in winter — he supposes, 



T&mCE MEAT AND APPLE BUTTER. 163 

because it sours so easily. At shops, milk is usually sold at five 
cents ; when delivered, at six cents. Milk is less rich in winter 
than summer. A milkman told me that in dairies in and near 
the city, men mostly milk. He mentioned one quite near a dis- 
tillery. Women that take milk about in buckets to sell, have a 
cow of their own, and feed her on swill from the distillery, and 
slops from kitchens. The milk they sell is not healthy. Some 
of them buy a little good milk and mix with theirs. If a dairy 
woman's time is not entirely occupied with her business, she 
might in some places find it profitable to have an ice house, and 
send ice around with the same horse, wagon, and driver used for 
the sale of milk. Borden's condensed milk is boiled at a tem- 
perature of 112°, I think, and prepared in Connecticut. The 
American Solidified Milk Company, in New York, employ some 
girls in rolling, packing, and labelling. The superintendent 
writes : " The employment is healthy. Women receive from &7 to 
$8 per month, and their board. They spend twelve hours per 
day, including meal times, in the establishment. An intelligent 
person may learn in a week. There is a prospect of more being 
emplo}^ed. All the girls we employ are Americans, except one. 
It is a very comfortable occupation. I find little difference be- 
tween male and female labor. Yv 7 hen I have hired men or youths, 
I have found them to be more habitually attentive, and less 
irritable ; but women are usually neater. The women all board 
at a house, subject to the control of the Company. The price is 
$2.25 per week, washing included, and is paid for by the Com- 
pany. The character of the house is unexceptionable, and the 
table is much better provided than that of most farmers living 
here." 

148. Mince Meat and Apple Butter. The prepa- 
ration of mince meat might be performed by women. And it might 
be sold by them in stores where poultry, eggs, and butter are dis- 
posed of, or in clean, well-kept groceries. With a machine for 
cutting the meat, and another for paring the apples, it could be 
easily accomplished. Apple butter is an article that meets with 
ready sale in market. People that are very particular about 
their food only buy of those they know to be cleanly in their 
cooking. Stewing apple butter is laborious work. If a farmer 
has a cider press and an apple parer, much labor is saved in pre- 
paring the materials. In some places, apple butter is kept for 
sale in groceries, and in establishments for the sale of the pro- 
ducts of the dairy. The apples that are partly decayed, and 
those picked off the ground, furnish an abundance from large or- 
chards. And from orchards not accessible to market where de- 



164: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

fective fruit can be sold, there will be no want of a supply. It 
is sold by the pint or quart, or put up in jars holding more. 

149. Blustard Packers. Most of the mustard in this 
country has been imported, but some planters are now turning 
their time and attention to it. Mustard is cultivated to some 
extent for the oil pressed from its seed. Some factories exist in 
the United States. I have heard of a man in New York that 
used to be engaged extensively in grinding mustard with vinegar, 
and employed women to put it in jars, paying $3 a week. In 
some dry mustard factories women are employed to put the 
mustard in papers. A manufacturer of mustard writes : " Women 
are employed at some large establishments. The business is 
severe on persons with weak lungs, as a large quantity of steam 
or dust arises from packing. The work is paid for by the quan- 
tity, not the day. Women of good judgment would soon become 
mistresses of their w r ork — in six months they would become good 
workwomen. They would probably spoil as much as their wages 
were worth for the first few days. When cholera and yellow 
fever are about, is the best time for the sale of mustard. Ten 
hours is the usual time for work, but in busy seasons the hands 
work longer." 

150. Oyster Sellers. I called on a woman who makes 
a living for herself and five little children by selling oysters. 
She sells most about tea time, and on until twelve o'clock. She 
thinks oysters are wholesome all the year. Physicians recom- 
mend them for their patients, and many can eat them when they 
cannot eat anything else. Of course a real oyster saloon can 
only be kept in places where fresh oysters can be had. Oysters 
are rather hard for a woman to open. In summer nothing is 
done. The room, vender, and oysters should be clean, to draw 
decent customers. It pays well ; but too often, in small con- 
cerns, the profits are derived from the sale of liquor. At a little 
oyster shop the woman told me she barely made a living. She 
keeps boys to open the oysters. She supplies families with fresh 
oysters, and when she receives an order, prepares them for fam- 
ilies and sends them to the house. 

151- Pie Bakers. "Many of the young Swabian girls 
of thirteen or fourteen years old are sent to Stuttgard to acquire 
music, or other branches of education, among which, household 
duties are generally included. A matron, who keeps a large 
establishment there, gives the instruction, which they voluntarily 
seek. They may often be seen returning from the bakeries, with 
a tray full of cakes and pies of their own making ; and some- 
times young gentlemen, for the sake of fun, stop them to buy 



PIE BAKERS. 165 

samples of their cookery." The foundation of Miss Leslie's 
culinary knowledge was laid at a school of cookery in Philadel- 
phia. In England, women make pastry for confectioneries. At the 
W. pie bakery I was told they employ women to prepare the fruit. 
They used to employ them to roll the dough ; but they are not 
such fast workers as men. One man remarked, the shoulders 
ache from rolling by the time evening comes. The women are 
paid fifty cents a day, and board themselves. One woman boards 
with them, and receives $1.50 a week, with her board. M. & 
Co. pay their women five cents an hour, for preparing the fruit 
and making pies. They sell most to retail stores and hotels — 
consequently sell most in the spring and fall, when the largest 
number of strangers are in the city. They keep three wagons 
running part of the time, which start at six in summer, and, in 
busy seasons, sometimes do not get in to remain till twelve at 
night. "When it rains or snows they do not sell so much, as 
those who sell at stands on the street are not out. The drivers 
come back several times during the day for pies, when very busy, 
and they mention how many are ordered. So the manager knows 
how many to have baked. They always sell most on Saturday, 
and I think sell least on Wednesdays and Thursdays. When the 
women work over ten hours, they are paid extra at the same rate, 
five cents an hour. C. and wife pay their best woman $9 a month 
with board and washing. It is her duty to roll out pastry, put 
the fruit in, and put the covers on. They employ some girls for 
$6 a month, to wash dishes, cook fruit, chop apples, pick dried 
fruit, &c. The work requires more strength than skill. There 
are only four large pie bakeries in New York. Madame L., who 
sells French pastry and confectionery, says very few women are 
employed in Paris, in making pastry, except for families. It 
requires too much strength and too long labor, to do so for a 
saloon. The saloons are usually open until twelve o'clock at 
night. At a bread bakery an attendant told me she prepares the 
fruit for pies, but the bakers prepare the crust, make and bake 
them. She says their men do that in the morning, when not 
otherwise employed, and it would not pay to have a woman 
for that purpose alone. Mrs. H. employs fifteen women. She 
pays $3.50 a month, with board and lodging, to those that slice 
apples and carry pies to and from the oven. Men place them in 
the oven and take them out. She pays $6.50 to those that roll 
out pastry and wash dishes, &c. She has three thousand pies made 
sometimes in one day. It requires more care to bake pies than 
bread. At another pie bakery, the lady told me she has the 
fruit prepared for pies in her kitchen and taken to the bakehouse, 



166 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

where they are made up by men, to save the women from work- 
ing where the men are. She pays a woman for preparing fruit 
$5 a month and her board. In a pie bakery in New York, one 
of the attendants said in the old country women learn to bake 
pies and cakes for confectioners. They pay £30 for instruction, 
and spend two years' apprenticeship. They learn the whole pro- 
cess, including the stewing of fruit and preparing mince meat. 
In this country that is followed as a separate branch, and mostly 
done by women for bakers. She said in the bakery where she 
stood, girls were required, not only to wait on customers, but 
wash the counters, shelves, and windows of the store. The other 
attendant told me she found the smell of the pastry, and being so 
constantly on her feet, very injurious. They each receive $8 q, 
month, and their board and washing. To succeed, a person 
should be quick in her motions and calculations, and a good 
judge of money. They are in the shop fifteen hours. In some 
bakeries the girls spend eighteen hours in the shop. The time 
could be shortened, if all the establishments of the kind would 
unite and make regulations to that effect ; but it could not be 
done by one or two stores on account of the competition in the 
business. Such a store would lose its patronage. The majority 
of girls board with the bakers' families, on account of rising 
early to be in store. Summer is the poorest season on Broad- 
way, as most of their customers are out of the city at that season ; 
but in localities where the working classes are supplied, the 
summer is the best season, as most of them do not go to the ex- 
pense of making up a fire to bake their bread and pastry. 

152. Picklers of Oysters. An oysterwoman told me 
that girls and women are employed at most places where oysters 
are put in cans to send away. They are paid by the gallon for 
opening the shells ; and near New Haven, some girls make $4 a 
day. On the Great South Bay, they do not earn so much, as 
the oysters are smaller and rougher. It requires considerable 
practice to become expert, but not much physical strength. The 
business is considered healthy, and women are paid at the 
same rate as men. Miss B. told me that at Fair Haven some 
women are paid for opening oysters two and a half cents a 
quart. 

153. Poultercsrs. Much attention has been paid in this 
country, during the last ten years, to the breeding and feeding 
of poultry. All that read this will remember the hen fever that 
spread through our country a few years ago. Chinese chickens 
sold at from $40 to $100 a pair ; and the usual price of one 
egg for a time was $5. The saving of feathers off poultry will 
be found profitable, for they bring a high price and ready sale. 



EESTAUEANT KEEPEES. 167 

Poultry are best disposed of in large quantities at hotels, steam- 
boats, and restaurants. Houses for poultry should be warm and 
tightly made. When there is a variety of poultry, each kind 
should be separately lodged. Plenty of space, water accessible, 
gravel, living plants and loose soil are the principal things to 
render poultry comfortable. The worms and insects obtained 
from the loose soil furnish them animal food, and sand or gravel 
is necessary to promote digestion. It is best not to draw poultry 
when preparing it for market, as it keeps longer when the air is 
excluded. In winter some farmers let their poultry freeze, and 
pack them in boxes of dry straw, and send them to market. 
They will keep so for two or three months. I was told of an 
old lady, back of New Albany, la., that has made several thou- 
sand dollars by the sale of poultry. The egg trade is a very ex- 
tensive one. It requires a knowledge of the state of the mar- 
ket, and promptness in supplying its demand at the right time. 
Several establishments in Cincinnati entered largely into the 
business some years ago, and, we suppose, still continue it. Eggs 
are often shipped from Cincinnati to New Orleans and New 
York. " In France" and England 6,000,000 eggs are used annually 
in preparing leather for gloves. 5 ' In New York the poultry sold 
in market is mostly purchased from the wholesale commission 
merchants, who have stands in some parts of the market, or stores 
near the market. Poultry is there sold by the pound : chickens, 
9 and 10 cents, and turkeys from 10 to 12 cents. It requires 
experience to learn the quality of poultry, but those in the 
business can judge of it by seeing the poultry when alive. 
The best time for selling is through the fall up to February. 
Some market women sell poultry in winter, and flowers in sum- 
mer. Those who engage in raising poultry, could unite with 
it the raising of rabbits, pigeons, &c. About a hundred per- 
sons (mostly women) are employed in a henery near Paris, where 
thousands of chickens are annually hatched out by keeping eggs 
in rooms, heated by steam to a uniform temperature. 

154. Restaurant Keepers. In London and Paris, 
young and pretty women are employed in the best class of 
tobacco stores and in restaurants. This should not be so on 
account of the number, and often the character, of the men that 
resort to these shops. Indeed, we think it best not to employ 
them in any stores that men only frequent. Besides, the un- 
seasonable hours that restaurants are kept open, make it objec- 
tionable for women. They are often not closed until midnight 
or after. In Great Britain gixh and women are frequently 
employed as bar maids at inns. 



168 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

155. Sealed Provisions, Pickles, and Sauces. The 

plan is now almost universally adopted in the United States, of 
putting up fruit and vegetables in cans from which the air is ex- 
cluded. It is one of the greatest inventions of the age for house- 
keepers. It saves labor and expense; and if well put up, the 
fruit and vegetables are as fresh and taste as natural as we have 
them in the growing season. Quite a number of large houses 
are engaged in the business in New York, and a few in Philadel- 
phia. E. Philadelphia employs women to put pickles and pre- 
served fruit in jars, sealing and labelling them. They can earn 
from $2.50 to $3 a week. They sit while at work. The season 
begins in July, and is over in October. K. & Co., New York, 
employ about a hundred females during the fruit season. The 
occupation consists in preparing the articles to be preserved ; 
that is, peeling, seeding, washing, &c., labelling bottles, and 
painting cans. Those they employ are mostly Irish, and not 
capable of any very elevated position of labor. The fruit season 
lasts six months, after which only about thirty remain the rest 
of the year. The hours of labor are ten, and the compensation 
from $2.50 to $3 per week. In another establishment they em- 
ploy only small girls, to whom they pay $2 per week, and occa- 
sionally $2.50. Mrs. Dall suggests that farmers' daughters put 
up candied fruits like those imported from France, which bear 
a good price and yield a handsome profit. Some women engage 
in making pickles on their own responsibility. Owners of gar- 
dens not convenient to market would find it profitable to put up 
fruits and vegetables, and to make pickles and sauces. The 
spices they would have to purchase ; but if they had an orchard, 
they could make good vinegar. They could either sell the ar- 
ticles in the nearest large city, or pay a commission for the sale 
of them. Mr. D., in one of the New York markets, employs 
women for putting pickles in jars — gives $8 a month and board. 
The number of hours they are employed depends on the quan- 
tity of work they have on hand. B., New York, employs for 
six months from six to eight women ; for four months, some 
twenty-five ; and the remaining two months, from ninety to one 
hundred and twenty-five. B. has always bad his work done in 
the city, but contemplates having it done hereafter in the coun- 
try, as the articles will then be on the ground, and save the 
trouble of transportation. They send South. He thinks the 
South must for a long time be dependent on the North for pickles. 
They even furnish some of the pickle houses in Baltimore. They 
fear they will lose much because they have now no demand for 
pickles from the South, and they are likely to spoil by keeping. 
They are most busy in summer and fall. They keep some steady 



SEALED PROVISIONS, PICKLES, AND SAUCES. 169 



hands all the year. They find it difficult to get good hands, and 
pay learners from the first. Many girls go from New York in 
the summer, to the country, to put up pickles, gather berries, and 
weed gardens; and it pays them pretty well. B. pays his women 
fifty cents a day of ten hours. It is not unhealthy, and requires 
but a little time to learn. In this, as in most other mechanical 
work, practice makes perfect ; consequently, experienced hands 
receive the preference. At most places men attend to fruit 
while it is being cooked. The preserving is mostly done in large 
kettles, around which pass pipes containing steam, encased by 
larger vessels. Lifting the kettles would be too heavy for women, 
when they contain, as in some cases, thirty-five gallons of fruit. 
And the steam used would require some one that knew a little 
of such matters, yet a smart woman could soon learn. M. & M. 
have their work done in the house, paying from $2.25 to $4. 
They can always get hands. W. & P. have their pickles, pre- 
serves, and sauces put up in the county. Their girls get from 
$3 to $6 a week. They employ two hundred girls, and take 
most of them from the city in the busy season from June to Oc- 
tober. Gr. pays $3 a week. Any one that can use their hands 
can do it, and become expert in two or three months. Another 
pickler pays 82 per week. His wife does most of the work. 
Mrs. M. lives near Washington market. She employs some 
women to preserve, and some to put up pickles. Most of her 
preserves are put up by an old lady who does it at her own 
home. She pays her women from $2.50 to $4 a week. It re- 
quires long experience to become proficient. Nearly all the 
work is done in her house, and of course is done only in the 
summer. Her custom is mostly confined to the city. If she is 
preserving a very large quantity of fruit, she has a man to stir 
it. He spends most of his time taking purchased articles home. 
She uses only the best articles. She can always get enough 
hands. An extensive pickle manufacturer writes : " I employ 
women in packing pickles and all goods of the kind into glass — 
labelling, corking, making jellies, jams, &c, packing, labelling 
catsups, bottling syrups, &c. Women are so employed wherever 
these goods are manufactured. The employment is healthy— 
so much so that I have known invalids gain their health. I pay 
$3 per week — men $6 to $10 ; all work ten hours a day. Women 
can learn in from three to twelve months. Some learners receive 
$2, and some $2.50 per week. Quickness, neatness, and skill are 
required. Summer and fall are the busy seasons. The females 
are mostly young Irish, born in the United States. Women are 
superior in handiness, inferior in strength." A gentleman in the 
business writes from Newburyport : " I employ usually from eight 



170 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

to ten women. I pay eight cents per hour, and they work from 
four to seven hours. The men's work is worth more than women's, 
and entirely different from it. The prospect for this kind of work 
is good. There is no work in winter or early spring. Seaports 
are the best localities for the business. My women pay from 
$1.50 to $1.75 for respectable board." 

156. Sugar Makers. When the part of the sugar cane 
to be pressed, is cut, it is tied in bundles and drawn to the mill 
in wagons. It is deposited in heaps outside, and negro girls 
carry the bundles on their heads to the mill door. After the 
cane has been subjected to pressure by cylinders, to obtain the 
juice, it fells through an opening in the mill walls, and is carried 
off by negro women and spread in the sun, to dry for fuel. The 
work in sugar mills is very warm and heavy. The work in 
sugar refineries is very laborious, and requires the workers to be 
subjected to great heat. Several refiners have informed me 
that the business does not admit of the employment of women in 
any department. The business is said to be very trying on the 
constitution, and produces an unhealthy increase of flesh. It is 
said to be good for consumptives on account of the great nutri- 
ment in sugar. A sugar refiner died not long ago, whose salary 
received from the company amounted, I was told, to $25,000 
per annum. I have thought there is one part of the work a 
woman might do — it is enveloping the sugar in paper cases. At 
a sugar refinery a man told us, some women are employed to 
make bags for containing char, i. e., burnt bones, and earn several 
dollars a week. The sewing is done by hand ; making the bags 
requires but a short time, though it is heavy work. Most 
refiners buy theirs at bag factories, or have their men to make 
them. 

157. Tea Packers. A boy fitting himself to be a tea 
broker told me, the business is best in the spring, fall, and winter. 
The quality of tea is principally decided by smelling — which is 
done before it is moistened, by blowing on it with the breath and 
then putting it to the nostrils. Boiling water is then poured 
on it, and tasted. The boy said, it is a paying business. It is 
not healthy on account of the dust inhaled. It does not take 
more than a year to learn to judge of the quality of kinds of tea. 
Boys learning the business do not live long. They are paid $2, 
and $2.50 a week. In busy seasons, they sometimes work as late 
as nine o'clock. There are not many tea packers in the city, 
and one told me, most of them cannot make a living. We call- 
ed on Mr. N., a teapacker, who charges for putting tea out of the 
large boxes, in which it is imported, into canisters and package 3 , 
according to the way in which it is put up ; whether in paper 



VERMICELLI — VINEGAR. 171 

covers, or canisters of lead or tin, The facing or labelling varies 
some. He says, packing could be done by girls. He employs 
men and boys, paying the boys from $2 to $1 a week. There are 
only two tea packing establishments in New York, and not more 
than one in any other large city. It is not at ail unhealthy. Pack- 
ing is done most in spring and fall. Mr. N. thinks it would be 
best to have the girls work in separate apartments from the men. 
He complains of the want of promptness in girls. A tea packer 
of Boston writes : " I employ from six to ten girls to cover and 
line boxes, &c. They are American, of Irish descent. There is 
nothing in the business, that the girls do, that can be considered 
unhealthy. Wages ran from $2.50 to $3 per week. It does 
not take a long time to learn, and full wages are paid while 
learning. I employ my help the year round, though less hours 
are used for a day's work during the winter. Ten is the number 
of working hours during the summer, spring, and autumn ; and 
eight, during the winter months." In London, a number of men 
and women, principally women, buy exhausted tea leaves of the 
female servants and sell them at establishments, where they are 
dried, and a fresh green color given them by a copper preparation. 
They are sold for new tea. The quantity so renewed is thought 
to amount to 78,000 lbs. annually. The Chinese women assist in 
gathering tea leaves and drying them, but men do the packing. 

158. Vermicelli. Vermicelli is moulded by passing through 
a machine and being laid on frames until the next day to partially 
dry. Then girls cut it in short pieces, and twist it. The twist- 
ing requires a little art acquired by practice. They receive from 
$2 to 13.50 a week. It is cruel for females to be kept on their 
feet all day while at work, when they might sit. At a factory. 
I saw a French lady, the wife of the proprietor, cutting and 
twisting vermicelli. A young Frenchman was at work, who told 
us he was paid 75 cents a day; but women, he said, would not be 
paid as much, because he had to attend to the machinery. The 
lady sat, as girls in factories should do if they wish. 

159. Vinegar. A plant is now grown from which vinegar 
is made. " In addition to the consumption of vinegar in culinary 
uses and the preparation of preserved food, it is indispensable in 
several branches of manufacture, as in the dressing of morocco . 
leather, and in dye and print works." The labor of making vin- 
egar is too hard and heavy for women. The handling of barrels, 
changing of liquids, and constant exposure to heat and cold, 
without cessation of labor, are too great for the female frame to 
sustain. The workers often pass from a temperature varying 
from 92° to 105°, to one of extreme coldness." A Boston vine- 
gar manufacturer, writes : " Women are never employed in making 



172 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

vinegar in large quantities. They are not adapted to the occu- 
pation. It does not agree with some constitutions. It requires 
but a short time to learn the business. The prospect for future 
employment is poor." Some women make vinegar from parings 
of fruit, tea leaves, &c, for family use. 

160. Y©ast. A manufacturer of yeast powders writes: 
" There is but a small part of the work that women can do. It 
requires the strong, muscular arm of a man to do most of it." 
We know women are sometimes employed for putting up the 
powders, and are paid by the number of packages. 



TEXTILE MANUFACTURES. 

161. Cotton Manufacturers. Only so far back as 
1789, doubts were entertained whether cotton could be cultivat- 
ed in the United States, while now the amount of calicoes annu- 
ally produced in the United States is supposed to equal twenty 
millions of yards. " The number of females employed in the 
various factories of Lowell, in which textile fabrics are pro- 
duced, will exceed 12,000. Those engaged in weaving can earn, 
upon an average, from $2.50 to $4 per week. Those who labor 
as spinners and spoolers make only from seventy-five cents to 
$2, but they are generally very young." In the cotton mill at 
Cannelton, Ind., there were " in 1854, about 200 females. They 
worked by the job, and their pay was the same as would be given 
to men for the same work. They earned from $1 to $5.50 per 
week." We believe, in the majority of factories, the plan of 
paying some hands by the piece, and some by the week, is adopted. 
B.j manufacturer, told me quite a number of his weavers earn 
from $5 to $6 a week, being paid by the piece. It requires two 
or three months to get in the way of weaving well. His hands 
are busy all the year. His factory is in New Jersey, twenty-five 
miles from New York. The laws of New Jersey prohibit the em- 
ployment of operatives more than twelve hours out of the twenty- 
four, but some evade it. The law, also, forbids the employment 
of children under ten years of age. The smaller children are 
engaged in spinning, and not so well paid. It requires but a 
short time to learn to attend the spinning machinery. There is 
generally a full supply of weavers to be had, because it pays 
well. Manufacturers usually have their work done in the country, 
because living, and consequently labor, are cheaper there. A 



COTTON MANUFACTURERS. 173 

cotton manufacturer in Bhode Island, who employs about 100 
operatives, writes : "I pay both by the piece and the week. 
When by the week, from 81 to $5. When by the piece, the 
women are paid at the same rate as the men, but the men are able 
to make from fifty cents to $1 per week more. It requires from 
three to six months, to learn. Girls are paid while learning, if 
they grow up with us. They are employed through the year,, 
and work sixty-nine hours per week, twelve hours per day for five 
days, nine hours on Saturday. All classes of laborers must work 
during mill hours. Women keep the rooms and machinery 
neater than men. About seven eighths of the women employed 
in our mill are Americans ; one half would be the nearer propor- 
tion in mills generally in this section, three fourths in some in- 
stances. There are other parts that women might be employed 
in, but the custom has not been introduced in our section, on 
account of their dress. They pay from $1.50 to $1.75 for board, 
and are all in private families." The Lawrence Manufacturing 
Company, at Lowell, write: "Women are employed in carding, 
spinning, dressing, and weaving. The emploj'ment is not un- 
healthy, and they earn from $1 to $4 a week, clear of board, 
according to capability and skill — average, say, $2 per week. 
They work eleven hours a day; men average about eighty cents 
a day clear of board ; their work is altogether too hard for women. 
The women learn in from one to three months. They are paid, 
usually, $1 a week, besides their board, while learning. The 
qualifications needed are respectable character and ordinary 
capacity. They are employed all the year round. The scarcity 
of hands is greater in the departments requiring most skill; there 
is an abundance of inferior sort. We employ 1,300 women ; 
perhaps one third are Americans. They are employed in all 
branches where it is expedient. The Americans are well in- 
formed ; the Irish, improving, though low in the scale of intelli- 
gence. They have churches, evening schools, and lectures. 
Work stops at 6.30 and 7 o'clock. They live in boarding houses 
under our care, well regulated, respectable and comfortable, and 
pay $1.25 per week." At the New York mills, " 361 adult and 
99 minor females are employed in the manufacture of fine shirt- 
ings and cottonades. Wages of adults are $3:99, and minors, 
$2.12£ per week. Price of board, $1.50. They work 12 hours 
per day." The Naunkeag Steam Cotton Company, Mass., " employ 
400, and pay by the week, from $2.50 to $3. Those that do 
piecework, earn on an average, $3.50 per week; six months will 
enable intelligent hands to earn three fourths pay. Their board 
is paid for two weeks, while learning, then they receive what 
they earn. Desirable hands find steady work ; they are employed 



174 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

all the year ; they work eleven hours a day. We prefer women, 
because neater and more reliable. They have more time for im- 
provement than is made available. Board, $1.50 to $1.75. 
Good boarding houses are provided." At Kingston, Rhode 
Island, a man employing nine girls, pays by the yard, and the 
girls earn from $4 to $6 per week. Men receive the same wages 
as women. They work from sun up to sun down, except at meal 
times. If other mills ran but ten hours, they would. They 
have work all the year. Hands are rather scarce in that State. 
All are American. They prefer it to general housework. Wom- 
en are the best in mills for light work. Female operatives pay 
$1.50 for board, lodging, and washing. The Jackson Manufac- 
turing Company of New Haven writes : " Women are employed 
in the various branches belonging to a cotton mill. Average 
wages of our females are $2.30, and board money $1.25, making 
$3.55 per week received by them. Some females in our employ 
earn eighty cents per day; average price of male labor, about 
eightj^-four cents per day. Women are paid less, because they 
cannot do such work as is done by men. In regard to the time 
required to learn to do the work in the different departments, 
much depends upon the dispositions of the learners. Six months 
would ordinarily be sufficient time to render one competent. 
Women are usually allowed their board while learning. A good 
character and good health are needed. There is much changing 
among help during the spring and summer months, say for four 
mouths in the year ; but we almost invariably keep our supply 
good. Our working hours are eleven and a quarter per day. 
With the exception of our weaving department, but little work is 
done on Saturday afternoons aside from cleaning, so that our 
working hours will not average over ten and a half per day. By 
giving a suitable notice to the overseer, it is so arranged that the 
help can be absent from their work one day or a month. The 
largest proportion of American help is found in the weaving and 
dressing departments. We have in our employ 140 men, 310 
females, about one half American. We have good boarding 
houses, carefully watched, and kept clean in all respects. Our 
American help are quite intelligent, also some of the foreign. 
Some of our help attend school during the winter months. 
Board $1.25 per week — the keeper of the house not paying rent. 
The houses will each accommodate about twenty persons com- 
fortably." Another manufacturing company pay from $2 to $4 
per week, mostly by the piece. The work can be learned in 
three or four months. Their hands are paid small wages while 
learning. They have constant employment. They usually work 
twelve hours per day ; three fourths American. From a manu- 



BATTING CALICOES. 175 

facturer in Gilford, New Hampshire, we learn he employs forty 
women, who work by the piece, and whose average pay is $3 per 
week. They work eleven hours. Females are paid the same as 
men for the same kind of work. Some parts of the business can 
be learned in one day, others ten, and some hands will learn in 
one day what others would not in ten. Work at all seasons; 
spring and fall most busy. It pays better than housework. 
Board of males, $2.50; females, $1.25 to $1.50. A manufac- 
turer in New York writes : " I employ about twenty women in 
weaving, twenty-five in spinning, spooling and other branches; 
boys and girls from fifteen to twenty each, and ten men. Women 
average about $2.50 per week. Women are paid the same price 
as men. Weavers earn about $3.50 per week. My mill runs 
twelve hours per day, the year round. Women are mostly Amer- 
ican. The girls have an hour for each meal." A medical man 
has stated, that the health of operatives is promoted by occupy- 
ing rooms with large windows on each side of the room, so that 
the sunlight will penetrate the apartments during the entire day. 
And those rooms with white walls are more healthy and better 
for the eyes than those with colored walls. 

162. Batting. A manufacturer of cotton batting writes : 
" Women are employed in our factory to tend machinery. They 
are employed in Europe. It is only unhealthy from being indoor 
work. We pay, per week, for best hands, $2 and board. They 
work twelve hours. I think there is a surplus of hands at this 
time. The work is light and does not require an expenditure of 
strength. The work is as comfortable as any can be. All parts 
will not answer for women. Board $1.42. Men are paid $1 
more than women, but perform a different part of the work. 
Learners usually command wages after two weeks. The summer 
is the most profitable time to manufacture." 

163. Calicoes* Calico takes its name from Calicot, a town 
in Malabar, where the art has been practised with great success 
from time immemorial. Calico printing is the art of producing 
figured patterns upon cotton. They are transferred to its surface 
by blocks, or engraved by copper cylinders, by which the colors 
are directly printed, or by which a substance having an affinity 
for both the stuff and coloring matter is employed, which is called 
a mordant. " In England, calico printing employs a vast number 
of children of both sexes, who have to mix and grind the colors 
for the adult workpeople, and are commonly called turners. The 
usual hours of labor are twelve, including meal time ; but as the 
children generally work the same time as the adults, it is by no 
means uncommon in all districts for children of five and six years 
old to be kept at work fourteen and even sixteen hours consecu- 



176 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

tively. They begin to work generally about their eighth year, as 
in Birmingham and Sheffield, but often earlier." Calico is printed 
mostly in Lowell, PhiladeJphia, Saco, Dover, and some other towns. 
A manufacturing company of lawns and calicoes in Providence, R. 
I., write : "We employ fifty women in stitching, folding, and 
tracing pantograph designs. The employment is healthy. We 
pay from fifty cents to sixty-seven cents per day of ten hours. 
We have one woman who does a man's work at folding, and is 
paid a man's wages — $1 per day. The time to learn the business 
is according to natural ability ; very soon with ordinary capacity, 
say, two weeks. Cool weather is the best for work, but the women 
are not thrown out of employment at any season. We have more 
applicants than we can accommodate. The light, clean work, is 
best for women ; the rough aod heavy for men. We adopt female 
labor as far as practicable. Ordinary board is from $2 to $2.50 
yer week." 

164, Canton Flannels. A manufacturer of Canton flan- 
nels in Holden, Mass., writes : " W^e employ from twenty to twenty- 
five women in spinning, spooling, drawing, and speeder tending, 
warping and weaving. W r e like them because they are neater, 
and more reliable, and the work is better adapted to females. 
They earn from fifty cents to $1 per day of twelve hours. Women 
are paid the same as men, except the overseers, who get from 
$1.25 to 81.67 per day. It requires from one week to four to learn 
the business. We sometimes pay their board while learning, if 
they are attentive to work. It is as reliable as any business. 
There is no difference in seasons ; we work the year round. The 
time could not be shortened. In weaving there is no surplus of 
hands. I would say, that with the present prospects for business, 
it would be well for many of the females in want of employment 
to learn to weave. They can make from $4 to $6 a week, but 
mostly average $1.75. It is healthy work. The labor is not 
hard, but confining ; and the girls are generally happy and con- 
tented. Three fourths of ours are Americans." 

1 65. Carpet Chains. We were told that in the manu- 
facture of carpet chain, " women are employed in spooling. We 
saw women employed in weaving various kinds of binding for 
carpets, webbing for girths, reins, and harness. The hours of 
labor are nominally ten, which, indeed, seems reasonable, in Phila- 
delphia ; but in the suburbs, and some parts of New England, 
both men and women work fifteen hours. Our informant uses no 
artificial light on the premises, and when the daylight fails, his 
workpeople leave off labor. The wages are the usual fifty cents 
a day. Steady hands are kept in work the year round ; but un- 
skilful workwomen are dismissed after fair trial. Men earn double 



DYEES A^D BLEACHERS. 177 

what women earn, though they do not produce double the worl^, 
nor do it any better. When machinery is used, women frequently 
require assistance from a workman." 

166. Cord. C.j of Philadelphia, manufacturer of black 
and white cord, employs about thirty women in spooling, twist* 
ing, balling, and making into skeins. He keeps his hands all the 
year. He did not permit us to see them, saying they object to 
being seen by strangers, on the ground that they are u en desha- 
bille." We can bear witness to the probability of this statement, 
for almost all the women we have seen at work are very untidily 
clad, and dirty; indeed, in the present total disregard of cleanli- 
ness in the workrooms, if they wore better clothes, they would 
spoil more than they can afford. Ought not employers and work- 
women to consider this subject, since it undoubtedly degrades a 
female, even in her own estimation, as in that of others, to be 
habitually in what is mildly qualified " deshabille ? " The spool- 
ers receive the highest wages, viz., $5 per week ; the other hands 
from $2 to $5. The fine cord is made farther East, as it can there 
be produced cheaper ; the coarser can be made in Philadelphia, 
at a lower rate. Mr. J., of New York, employs six women, two 
of them earn $7 each — the others less. It is paid for by the 
quantity. Prospect for work, good. There are but ^ve factories 
in New York city, but they do seven eighths of the city business. 
In Philadelphia most is made. It takes but two or three moDths 
to learn. They give employment all the year, and learners receive 
something from the first. 

167. Dyers and Bleachers. Dyeing may be divided 
into seven branches: 1, calico and cotton; 2, fur; 3, fustian; 4, 
leather; 5, linen; 6, silk ; 7, wool and woollen. Silk and wool 
are of animal origin, and require different treatment in dyeing 
from substances of a vegetable nature, such as cotton and flax. 
All the various colors and shades of dyed goods were originally 
derived from the combination of the four simple colors — blue, red, 
yellow, and black. Cotton is more easily dyed than linen, and 
the colors are brighter. Much of what is said under " Print 
Works " will apply to this subject. They are so similar, a dis- 
tinction is scarcely necessary. In large manufacturing cities, dyers 
usually confine themselves to one kind of goods, as wool or silk, 
and some to certain colors. Dye houses, in other than manufac- 
turing cities and towns, are mostly for the coloring of goods that 
are worn, or new goods that have been damaged. A great deal 
of dyeing is done in our large cities. Frequently, persons going 
into mourning have articles of dress dyed. Steam has taken the 
place mostly of hard labor. When goods have been well dyed, a 
casual observer could not detect it. Permanency of color is a 



ITS THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

desirable item in dyeing. Some women make a living by keep- 
ing a little shop, where they receive goods to be colored, and have 
the work done at dye houses, making, of course, a profit. There 
is generally a dye house connected with every large factory of 
woollen goods. A girl who was employed in a dye house says 
the work is far from being neat. The work of most of the girls 
is light. It is to put letters or figures on the articles sent, and 
when dyed, fold and tie them up, and place the numbers on. In 
the dye house where she was, one girl received $3.50 — theothers, 
each, $3 per week. They worked ten hours a day. One girl was 
employed in finishing the goods — that is, running them over a 
heated cylinder to smooth and dry them. She says the floors of 
dye houses are so wet that women would find it not only filthy, 
but injurious Mr. Y. says women are not employed in the 
mechanical department of his dye and print establishment — that 
the business requires the workers to stand in liquids, and the at- 
mosphere is very damp. A woman would be liable to suffer from 
exposure of that kind. A girl employed at another place to mark 
goods, told me she received $8 per week. Was told at C.'s clye 
house that he employs four girls, paying $3, and $3.50 a week. 
They put numbers on goods, and do other work of that kind. 
They work ten hours A cotton goods bleacher and dyer told 
me the work was too wet and dirty for women. Most of the wind- 
ing of cotton for dyeing is done by machinery. By steam power 
one person could do ten times as much as by a wheel. At one 
place they paid thirty -five cents for basting together two pieces 
of cloth eight yards long to be bleached ; and a woman could earn 
from seventy-five cents to 13 per day ; but the work could not 
last long. We called at a dyer and bleacher's. He said : " Very 
few women are employed in dyeing in this country, but in the 
old country they are. He has seen them at it in Scotland, and 
there it is rather better paid than most women's work. They are 
also employed in bleaching, both by chemicals and exposure to 
the sun. It is not unhealthy, although in a dye house a person 
must be wet from the knees down. By wearing thick boots, and 
leggins of India rubber, they would not be likely to suffer. 
Occasionally, dyers get some of the chemicals they use into sores 
on their hands and feet, which may injure them some, but not 
seriously. He says the work must be done in a certain time, and 
so they cannot be particular about keeping their feet dry. He 
pays old women for hanking cotton 37^ cents a score, and so they 
may earn $2.25 a week." There are mechanical modes of print- 
ing textile fabrics. In the Staten Island Dye and Print Works, 
" there are a good many women and children employed. The 
latter are principally confined to the printing department, each 



DYERS AND BLEACHERS. 179 

of the sixty printers engaged there being allowed a child for the 
purpose of adjusting or distributing the color evenly, previous to 
the application of the block. The rate of wages paid in this 
establishment is, we understand, as follows : the printers and 
block makers are paid by the piece, and when in full work can 
earn from $60 to $70 a month ; the dyers and other workmen 
receive from 37^ cents to $1.25 a day; the women $6 to $12 a 
month, and the children from $6 to $8." A dyer writes : 
" Women are sometimes employed in the finishing department, 
and are mostly paid by the day. Spring and fall are the busy 
seasons." One in Walpole, Mass., writes: "I think more than 
an ordinary degree of intelligence is required for the business, 
because of the thought and observation necessary." A dyer in 
Buffalo, N. Y., writes : " I employ two, and sometimes three 
women. Women are employed in basting work together, and in 
finishing it after it is dyed. In some places they have charge of 
the office, and receive and deliver goods. For a healthy person 
it is not injurious. In finishing, the individual is on his or her 
feet all the time. I pay from $1.75 to $5 per week, and hands 
work from ten to sixteen hours. The time could not be shortened, 
owing to the nature of the business, and the loss during the winter. 
The comfort and remuneration of the part done by women is very 
good. Women of equal intelligence with men do better, as it is 
of female apparel the business mostly consists. In winter they 
have considerable unoccupied time they could devote to mental 
improvement." The proprietor of the Chelsea Dye House writes : 
" We employ about seventy-five women to wash, iron, and finish 
dyed goods. About one eighth are Americans. It is not un- 
healthy, to my knowledge, or in my experience. Average pay is 
$3.50 per week. Those that work by the piece can earn from 
$3.50 to $6 per week of eleven hours per day. Women are paid 
all which the business they do will afford. It requires a woman 
of fair capacity a few weeks to learn. Work is constant for good 
hands. Work is nearly uniform through the seasons. Large 
cities are the best localities for business. They pay about $1.75 
per week for board in private families of their own standing." A 
member of a firm at Astoria, L. I., writes : " We employ from 
seventy-five to one hundred women in washing and dyeing yarns 
and cloth. We know them to be so employed in Berlin, Prussia. 
The employment is not unhealthy. We pay by the week from 
$4 to $5. They work ten hours. We pay men $7 per week for 
the same work that the females are employed at, because they do 
more. It requires about four years to learn fully that portion of 
work done by females. They are paid $2 per week while learn- 
ing. A good public school education is needed, and temperate, 



180 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

steady habits. The prospects for females are good — eventually 
they will supersede the men in one branch of the business. The 
spring and fall seasons are the best. The winter is not so good. 
About two months in the summer our works are partially stopped. 
There is a surplus of dyers in Lowell, Mass. We employ women 
in preference to men, because we believe them to be more intelli- 
gent than men — especially emigrants. About two thirds are 
Americans. They have evening schools, lectures, and church 
services. Those that board pay about $1.50 per week." 

168. Factory Operatives. The larger number of 
operatives in our manufactures are females. They are of all ages. 
They do not remain so permanently in our factories as in those 
of older countries. They make skilful and active workers. The 
factory operatives of this country are more favorably situated 
than those of most countries. Most of them have wholesome food 
and comfortable homes, or boarding houses. They are not con- 
fined in factories from early childhood until they lie down to take 
their last, long sleep ; consequently, they are not stunted and de- 
formed, and prematurely old. The activity and variety attend- 
ing life in the city are likely to produce great restlessness, and 
insatiable thirst for excitement. This must be checked, or its 
results may be ruinous. Vent of the feelings in harmless; whole- 
some amusements, recreation so far as is possible in the quiet of 
the country, reading good books, and social intercourse with the 
virtuous and worthy, will form a good substitute for this artificial 
excitement. So greatly is the manufacture of materials into 
cloth, and cloth into goods, facilitated by machinery, that wool 
taken from the sheep's back to-day, can be worn as clothing to- 
morrow. The number of factories has greatly increased since the 
introduction of machinery ; nor is it strange, for goods have be- 
come cheaper and the demand is greater. The materials for 
manufacturing are abundant in this country ; but the want of 
workmen acquainted with this business, and the want of capital, 
have prevented some branches of American manufacture from 
equalling those of older countries. The improvements in ma- 
chinery for removing dust and floating cotton in the work rooms, 
no doubt renders it more healthy than it was. " In proof of his 
assertion that factory labor shortens life, Dr. Jarroid deposed, 
that having examined, in the schools, all the children whose 
fathers had ever worked, or were still working in factories, he 
found that from one third to one fourth were fatherless." " Out 
of about two thousand children and young persons taken promis- 
cuously, who were carefully examined in 1832, two hundred were 
deformed. These were factory operatives." These statements 
refer to operatives in England. Some women are employed in 



FACTORY OPERATIVES. 181 

the manufactories of Birmingham, England, as overseers in the 
departments where women work, but the number is small, and in 
our country it is still more uncommon. Cotton and woollen 
goods are extensively manufactured in the New England States, 
New York, and Pennsylvania. A gentleman told me that a little 
more than a year ago, as he came from Vermont, he saw a young 
man in the cars with about twenty girls, that he was bringing 
down from Canada to a cotton factory in Massachusetts. The 
manufacturers had offered a bonus of $5 apiece for girls, and to 
pay their travelling expenses, and this young man was making a 
business of it. He says, in busy seasons there is a scarcity of 
hands in the New England factories. We believe that when men 
and women do the same kind of work, such as weaving, and are 
paid by the quantity, no difference is made in their wages. In 
comparing returns from several factories in Massachusetts, I find 
weavers earn in them from $4 to '$5.50 per week; warpers, $3 to 
$5 ; d otters, $3 to $4. Irish women, by working for less wages, 
have pushed American women out of factories. In Lowell, a few 
years back, nearly all the operatives were young American girls 
from the country. Many worked from the most honorable, self- 
denying motives ; some to educate younger members of the fam- 
ily, some to assist widowed mothers or hard-working fathers, 
some to lay by a sum to support themselves in old age, and some 
to acquire the means for obtaining a more extensive school edu- 
cation. A manufacturer of printing cloths, Heading, Pennsyl- 
vania, writes : u In all countries where there are cotton mills, 
women are employed as weavers, fly and drawing tenders, spool- 
ers, warpers, dressers, and cloth pickers. The work is not more 
unhealthy than any indoor employment. Workers earn from 
$2.25 to £6. Men and women are paid the same for the same 
kind of work. Our kind of work may be destroyed a year or so 
by the unsettled state of the country — otherwise it is good. The 
hands work about eleven hours at present prices, one hour less 
would reduce wages about 10 per cent. There are openings in 
cotton mills along the Hudson River, and farther East, and a 
surplus of hands in mechanical towns inland. The work is lighter 
than most of womanly employments. Women are superior in at- 
tending faithfully to their work, and are more easily managed 
than men. Board is from $1.50 to $1.75 per week, and is much 
better than their homes would be, if they were the daughters of 
day laborers, as many of them are. I would say further, in our 
branch of business women are treated in all respects as regards 
their work the same as men, paid the same, and under the same 
rules and restraint. In our dressing department the women 
make from $6 to $8, while the men make from $8 to $10, with 



182 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

the same machine at the same price. There are but few mills 
that employ women dressers, except in Pennsylvania. They are 
not strong enough ; but here the descendants of the old Dutch 
stock are more masculinely developed, and are taking the place of 
the men in this branch." A gentleman who has been manufac- 
turing cotton cloth in North Adams, Massachusetts, between twen- 
ty and thirty years, writes : " We employ women and girls in our 
mill. Some of the work requires constant stepping and walking. 
Wages for spinning girls, $2.50 to $3 per week; for boys the 
same, for spooling ; from $2.75 to $3 for speeder and drawer 
tenders ; $3 for warpers, or $4 ; all the rates of labor include the 
board. Farther East, women are employed as dressers, earning 
from $4 to $6 per week. Weaving is paid for by the piece — 
most other work by the week, as it cannot so well be let by the 
piece. To learn to spin on the throstle frames requires from six 
to eight weeks. The qualifications desired in an applicant are 
expertness, good behavior, ability to read and write, industry, 
and a desire to be useful to the employer. In midsummer, hands 
are most scarce. Good workers are never thrown out of employ- 
ment except during panics. In this place (North Adams), hands 
usually work from twelve to twelve and a half hours ; Saturdays 
we close at four o'clock in summer. Farther East, a number of 
operators work eleven hours ; some, twelve ; and some, even 
twelve and a half. The legislature of the General Government is, 
and has been for many years, against encouraging the industry of 
the country. Whatever revenue laws would promote the making 
of iron, wool, cotton, or cutlery, would assist and support agricul- 
ture, the making of shoes, and all other branches of labor. The 
cotton mills can merely subsist. The hours could not be short- 
ened. Those employed in watching, warming, oiling up, super- 
intending, repairing, &c., have the same hours. There has been 
a demand for hands everywhere in Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
and adjoining States. Women are more orderly, more easily 
governed, and more cleanly than men. Their slim fingers enable 
them to be more expert. They are more attentive, as a general 
thing, where the labor requires only looking after, creating no 
fatigue, except that which arises from close attention. For 
these reasons women are preferable. Their labor is somewhat 
cheaper than men's of the same age. In Western Massachusetts, 
about three fourths are American women ; in Eastern Massa- 
chusetts about one half are, and the other half foreigners. The 
women have good boarding houses, and live and dress well. Here, 
a hand can leave his employer by giving two weeks' notice ; far- 
ther East, four weeks' notice is required. In both places, effort 
is made to spare them at once, if they desire it. My American 



FACTORY OPERATIVES GINGHAM. 183 

work people are above mediocrity ; the others, rather below. 
Children under fifteen years of age are required by law to be kept 
out of the mills for at least three months in the year, to attend 
school ; more if the parents choose, as the schools are free. Em- 
ployers, as a general thing, press and urge the children to school, 
as intelligent hands are worth more than ignorant ones. For 
good board, women pay §1.50 per week ; with lodging and wash- 
ing, $2. Many hands lay up sums in the savings banks ; very 
many more might do so, if they chose. Good female spinners, 
speeder tenders, spoolers, warpers, twisters-in, and weavers are 
always rather scarce. They command from $3 to $6 per week. 
Widow women, with families of girls to support, can get a good 
living by such work, and lay up some money if they try." 
Hitherto few manufactories have been established in the Southern 
United States : but now that the South will depend more on its 
own resources, no doubt manufactories of cotton goods will be 
built up very rapidly. From " Northern Profits and Southern 
Wealth," we make an extract: "One third of the hands em- 
ployed in factories at the East are females. At the South, 
female labor is taking the same direction. At the North, this 
element of labor is supplied by immigration in nearly its whole 
extent — a very large proportion of the females employed in the 
factories being Irish. The Eagle mills in Georgia have one hun- 
dred and thirty-six looms, and employ seventy girls, who earn 
50 cents to $1 per day. The operatives in all these factories are 
white people, chiefly girls and boys, from twelve to twenty years 
of age. On an average they are better paid and worked easier 
than is usually the case in the North. Country girls from the 
pine forests, as green and awkward as it is possible to find them, 
soon become skilful operatives ; and ere they have been in the 
mills a year, they are able to earn from $4 to $6 a week. They 
are only required to work ten hours a day. Particular attention 
is paid to the character of the operatives, and in some mills none 
are received but those having testimonials of good moral charac- 
ter and industrious habits. Churches and Sabbath schools are 
also attached to several of the manufactories, so that the religious 
training of the operatives may be properly attended to. In 1860, 
45,315 males and 73,605 females were employed in cotton facto- 
ries. The woollen manufacturers employed as operatives in 
1860, 28,780 males and 20,120 females. 

169. Gingham. From the Manchester Gingham Manu- 
factory, we learn 149 American women are there employed in 
weaving, winding, spooling, piecing, drawing, reeling, and spin- 
ning. " Spinners' maximum is sixty cents per day. Weavers re- 
ceive twenty-six and eighteen cents per cut. Women receive for 



184 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

winding ten cents per cut, nine cents for spooling, forty cents per 
day for piecing, for drawing $2.50 per week, and for reeling l£ 
and \\ cents per doff. We pay the same to men and women for 
the same kind of work. They are usually about two months 
learning. Prospect for work is very good. We make a staple 
article. Summer is the best season; we have steady work the 
year round. Hands work sixty-nine hours during six days — twelve 
hours, five days; and nine on Saturday. There is some demand 
for them ; we prefer women for weaving. They pay for board 
$1.40 per week." The agent of the Gingham Mills, in Clinton, 
Mass., in reply to a letter seeking information, says : " We 
employ four hundred females, young and old, in the various 
branches of cotton manufacture. They are paid from forty 
cents to $1.25, according to skill and ability; they work 11^ 
hours. They are paid partly by the piece, and partly by the day. 
By the piece, and for the same kind of work, women receive 
as much as men. Some branches are learned very quickly, 
and some slowly, according to capacity. Women are paid while 
learning, much to our loss. Ordinary intelligence and complete 
use of the physical faculties are necessary qualifications. We 
work at all seasons. The women are very careful to select their 
times for absence, visiting, &c, when we are preparing the winter 
style of goods, which are of darker colors, and possibly less prof- 
itable to them. They are sure to come back during the manu- 
facture of lighter styles. It is clearly a womanly way of doing 
business, but the men do the same. The kinds of work women 
do in mills do not require the strength of men, and so women 
are employed. It is cheapest to employ women; because, if we 
employed only men, half the village would be idle. Boys can do 
all the work that the females do. We have four hundred males 
also. One third are American. In weaving, where men's and 
women's work is most justly and fully compared, men do the most 
and the best in quality. In other branches there is no decided 
difference. Board $1.50 per week; the houses are of good moral 
character, and very comfortable " 

170. Hosiers. The invention of machinery for making 
hose is ascribed to William Lee, of England, 1589. Some trace 
the invention of knit stockings to Spain. The number of hands 
employed in the manufacture of hose in Saxony amounts to 
45,000. Cotton, woollen, linen, and silk are the kinds of hose 
common to us. The manufacture of hose worn by Americans is 
mostly English. The amount of capital required, and the small 
number of good operatives in our country, cause the products of 
some of our manufactures to be of an inferior quality. Years 
back knitting was much done, particularly in the country, but 



HOSIERS. 185 

the general use of machinery has superseded the knitting needle. 
In our large cities, the great amount of hosiery worn might make 
the sale of hose and half hose a payable business. In making 
cotton and woollen hose, some children wind the cotton, some 
join the seams, and others sew them on the boards, to put them 
in shape. We called to see Aiken's knitting machine. It is 
quite an ingenious affair ; price, $65. I think if any two women 
would buy one, and one should knit, while the other formed the 
feet and finished them off, it would pay better than sewing. Large 
quantities of hosiery are made in Germantown, Pa. It gives 
employment to many women, who, at their houses, finish them 
off. The United States Government have usually obtained their 
clothing, shoes, hats, and socks for the army and navy at Phila- 
delphia, but since the war commenced, most of the clothing has 
been made up in New York. The manufacture of hosiery is very 
limited in New York. At the principal hosiery establishment 
we were told they only employ women to seam that are the wives 
of the weavers, and they do the work at home. It is very poor 
pay, and is done almost altogether by English women who have 
been brought up to the business. It would not pay a person to 
learn it. An English stocking weaver told me that he does 
theatrical work, as it pays best. He has known two women from 
his own country that w r ove hosiery in the United States. One 
did journey work with her husband in New York. She earned 
from $4 to $5 per week. Such work is paid for by the piece or 
dozen. The work pays poorly. A woman cannot earn at it 
more than thirty-seven or fifty cents a day, being paid eighteen 
cents a dozen for seaming socks. To seam shirts and drawers 
pays better, six cents being paid for each article. Weaving 
stockings by hand looms will not pay in this country — they can 
be imported so cheaply. It is rather light work. Work done 
by steam power is not so neat ; the selvages are not well made, 
and the goods must be cut and sewed in seams. Many women 
are employed in hosiery manufactures where steam is used. A 
stocking manufacturer in Lake Village, N. H., writes: "Seven 
hundred girls and married women are employed in this village to 
make stockings. Wages run from 50 cents to $1 per day of ten 
hours ; some are paid by the day, others by the piece. Men's 
work, being harder, is better paid. It requires from three to five 
weeks to learn. Women have their board paid while learning. 
Spring, summer, and autumn are the best seasons for work. Some 
work at the business to maintain their families; others, because they 
have nothing to do. All are Americans. They pay for board 
from $1.25 to $1.50 per week." A manufacturer writes : " We 
employ twenty-five females in the mill, and from one hundred to 



186 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



one hundred and twenty-five who take work to their homes. 
Nine tenths are Americans. We pay from $3.50 to $6 per 
week. It requires but a short time to learn in some depart- 
ments. They are paid from the time of entering the factory 
as a learner. It is considered a permanent business. Men and 
women do not work on the same branches." At the Troy 
hosiery manufactory, " sixty women are employed in tending 
knitting machines, winding yarn, and sewing by hand and by 
machines. The employment is healthy. Their wages run from 
$3 to $6 per week, average $4.50. They work mostly by the 
piece, a few by the week. Males and females usually work 
side by side, and the wages are alike. They are continually 
learning, from 18 years old to 40. The prospect is good for 
future employment, and the employment in factories is gener- 
ally constant. They work twelve hours per day. If shorter 
time was universal, it would not affect the profits. About one 
half are Americans. The rooms are well ventilated, and the tem- 
perature from sixty to seventy degrees summer and winter." 

171. Bflien's Wear. A gentleman in Darby, Penn., writes : 
" Women are employed in factories equally with men, throughout 
this section of country, as weavers. They are paid just as well, 
for the same kind of labor. The employment, for aught I can 
see, is entirely healthy. They receive from $18 to $25 per month 
of four weeks. They are paid by the piece. It requires about 
three months to learn weaving, dependent upon the facility with 
which the learners acquire knowledge. Learners are never paid 
while receiving instruction; but on the other hand, they more 
often pay their companions for the privilege of being taught. In- 
dustrious habits and quickness of perception are essential to com- 
plete success. By a law of Pennsylvania, sixty hours constitute 
a week's labor in factories. There is neither a demand nor surplus 
of hands at present, though a number of factories are in course of 
erection in this section of country ; but they will doubtless be fill- 
ed as soon as ready, for American women especially prefer factory 
to household labor. About one half our hands are American. 
Women have more stability of character than men, and are gen- 
erally superior to them in the neatness with which they bring 
the cloth from the looms. Board for operatives is from $8 to $9 
per month." 

172. Print Works. The Calico Print Works, New 
Hampshire, report : " We employ about 24 girls. The employ- 
ment is healthy. We pay girls about fourteen years old, thirty- 
three cents a day for 10^ hours in summer; in winter they work 
till dark, averaging ten hours. To girls about twenty years old, • 
we pay fifty cents per day. The men and women do different 



PRINT WORKS. 187 

work. The prospect of future employment is good. Hands 
work all the year the same. The price of good board is from 
$1.25 to $1.50 per week." The agent of the Pacific Print Works, 
Lawrence, Mass., gives the following reply to inquiries: "We 
employ one thousand women in carding, spinning, spooling, warp- 
ing, and weaving, on sewing machines, sewing by hand, measuring, 
knotting, ticketing, &c. The employment is generally healthy, 
but the workers are more or less exposed to bad air and to dust. 
They are paid from twenty-five cents to $1 per day, according to 
age or skill. They work from ten to eleven hours per day. Some 
work but 5J days, from choice. It would doubtless be a pecun- 
iary loss to shorten the hours. Women are as well paid 
here, generally, as men, when comparative strength and power 
of endurance are considered. It requires from three to twelve 
months to learn. While learning, they usually receive enough 
to pay their board. The more strength and intelligence they have, 
the better. The prospect for this employment is good. They 
work during all seasons. Women are not usually as well fitted 
as men to attend large machines, but are better for smaller ones. 
From three hundred to four hundred of our women are continual 
readers of our library. They pay $1.50 per week for board. It 
is as good, for the class of people to be accommodated, as any I ever 
saw." The agent of the print works, Manchester, N. H., writes : 
u Women are employed in all departments. They average sixty- 
five cents a day, and work eleven hours. They are paid by the 
piece, and at the same rate as the men. It requires from one to 
four weeks to learn. This kind of business is increasing. There 
is a demand all through New England for female labor in our 
branch of business. We employ 1,200, and three fourths are Amer- 
ican. They are more steady than men. Some of our girls go West 
to teach, and some teach here. They have separate boarding houses, 
and pay $1.37 per week, including washing and lights. The 
houses are kept with as much order as any female school. No 
operative is received until they certify that they will comply 
with the regulations,' 7 a copy of which we examined, and found 
to be very good. Prom the print works at Haverstraw, N. Y., 
we receive the following information : " Women are employed 
in sewing, measuring calico, and in the engraving department, in 
running the pantograph machines, which dispense entirely with 
hand engraving, die making, and machine engraving. Women 
are employed in England, but only partially in other European 
countries. The women earn from $2 to $4 per week. Men re- 
ceive double the pay of women : I know of no reason but usage. 
Only a few weeks are necessary to become proficient in our work, 
except in the engraving department. Men serve seven years to 



188 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

learn the art of engraving and printing. Women learn to trace 
by the pantograph in three months ; become proficient in one year. 
Ability and good judgment are necessary. The prospect for the 
employment of females is good in many other departments, par- 
ticularly designing. We are decided that females could success- 
fully acquire the art and trade of designing and drawing patterns 
for calico. Wages of males for this work are from $10 to $40 
per week — few at the former, more at $20. Ten hours constitute 
a day. The time could be shortened an hour or two without loss. 
We employ about forty females, because their labor is cheaper, 
and they are more reliable. We find women superior in all 
branches in which they are employed. The trade society forbids 
their employment in other parts of the work. Ability to read 
and write are indispensable in some departments. Men pay for 
board, $3 ; women, $1.50." The Suffolk print works pay by the 
piece, and average eighty cents per day. One of the proprietors 
at the print works in Pawtucket, Mass., writes : " AVomen are 
employed in tracing pantograph designs, and receive from fifty to 
sixty-seven cents per day. We have one woman who does a man's 
work at folding, and is paid a man's wages. The work is soon 
learned, with ordinary capacity. A good physical condition is 
needed. There is prospect for employment as long as calicoes 
are used. Cool seasons are the best for work — in very warm 
weather, work is suspended a short time. We employ fifty. The 
work is light and clean. The number of American women is very 
small. We adopt female labor as soon as the aid of machinery 
renders it practicable. Men are superior in strength and endur- 
ance. A locality is desirable where a free circulation of air is 
furnished on all sides. For ordinary board, women pay $2.50." 
The agent of the Fall River print works writes : li We pay women 
by the piece. They earn from $18 to $20 a month; have work 
the year round. For five days in the week they w T ork 10 h hours; 
on Saturday, 8J. We employ women because they can do more 
and cost less than men. Localities are sought where there is a 
good supply of soft water. Board from $2 to $2.50." A lawn 
manufacturer in Lodi, N. J., writes : " We employ women in en- 
graving, in stitching, and in finishing goods. The work is very 
healthy. We pay women $5 per week for engraving; from $2.50 
to $5 for other branches. The work can be learned in from four 
to five weeks. The business is increasing. The women are 
never out of work. One half are Americans. Women are em- 
ployed ten hours a day ; on Saturday, eight. Women are employ- 
ed, to help the village along. Very comfortable board, $5 
per month." The proprietor of some works in Rhode Island 
writes me: " We employ about twenty women and girls in meas- 



SPINNERS — SPOOL COTTON. 189 

tiring cloth, sewing the ends together for bleaching and fulling, 
knotting the ends of the pieces of cloth when folded ; also in en- 
graving copper rolls for printing calicoes, with a pantograph en- 
graving machine. The prices vary from $1 per week to $3 and 
over, working ten hours a day. For the same work, females are 
paid the same as males. The work is easily learned. Women 
are paid while learning. Women will be more employed in 
future. Work is constant, so far as seasons go. There is prob- 
ably no other branch of this work, in which women may be em- 
ployed, than those in which they are. Where women are employed 
they are as valuable as males. Board of women, $1.50 per week." 
"In the calico mills of Great Britain, girls grind and mix the colors. 
They are called teerers. They begin at five years of age, and 
labor twelve hours a day, sometimes sixteen ; and are kept late 
into the night to prepare for the following day." 

173. Spinners. " Each of the workmen at present em- 
ployed in a cotton mill superintends as much work as could 
have been executed by two hundred or three hundred workmen 
sixty or seventy years ago ; and yet, instead of being diminished, 
the numbers have increased even in a still greater proportion." 
Again, we read that " a single person can spin as much cotton in 
Lowell in an hour, as could three thousand Hindoos, by whom 
at one time -cotton cloth was principally manufactured." The 
wages of cotton spinners in Paris are only from twenty to forty 
cents per day of twelve hours. We read in the Monthly Bevieio, 
that " the masters of mills are unanimous in asserting that girls, 
and they alone are trained to flax spinning, never become expert 
artists, if they begin to learn after eleven." The small particles 
set loose in spinning affect respiration, and in the course of time 
do so very seriously. In many parts of Europe women carry 
portable distaffs, and spin as they walk. Two kinds of wheels 
are used for spinning — one for spinning cotton, tow, and wool — 
the other is used for flax. Steam machinery is mostly used for 
spinning cotton. The prices usually paid spinners will be found 
under factory operatives. I inquired of a girl spooling cotton 
for a weaver of coverlets, what wages she received. She replied : 
" $1.50 a week, working five hours a day." 

174. Spool Cotton. A manufacturer at Fall Kiver, 
Mass., writes : " We employ twenty women in spooling thread, 
and preparing it for market. The average pay is $3 per week, 
and they work eleven hours per day. It requires from one to. two 
months to become expert. When learning, they are paid for what 
they do carefully. The qualifications needed are neatness, and 
dexterity in their manipulations. They are employed at all 
seasons. The demand and supply of work people are about 



190 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

equal. We employ twenty females, because the work is adapted 
to them, and they are quicker in motion than men. They pay 
$1.75 per week for board." 

175. Tape. At W.'s, New York, I saw several women 
weaving tape for hoop skirts. They looked dirty and sad 
enough. They earn from $2 to $3.50 a week. It does not re- 
quire long to learn, but they must stand all the time. W. finds 
it difficult to get good workers. The incessant hum of the ma- 
chinery in such a low-roofed room would deafen me. I think it 
must affect the nerves of females. He pays a learner the first 
month $1.50 a week. After that, if she is competent, she will 
receive full wages. At the Graham Buildings, I saw the girls 
putting up tape for skirts. They earn from $3 to $4. The 
weavers earn from $4 to $6. It requires but a few days to learn 
to weave, and but a few hours to learn to measure and tie up 
tape. Most of the girls were Irish. Sixty were employed, and 
received work all the year. 

176. Weavers. Weaving is an occupation that was fol- 
lowed by all classes of women in primitive ages. The story of 
Penelope's shroud has been read as far as Homer is known. In 
Africa spinning is mostly done by women, and the weaving by 
men. The invention of machinery has very much done away 
with manual weaving. Fifty years back all woollen and most of 
cotton goods were made in that way. Some jeans, coarse flannel, 
rag carpets, coverlets, and other similar articles are still woven 
by hand. Now, shawls, dress goods, gloves, hosiery, fine 
carpets, cassimere, and cloth in all its varieties, are woven 
by machinery. The uniting of threads, and a constant attention 
to the machinery, are all that is necessary. The wages vary ac- 
cording to the places, the capabilities of the operatives, the goods 
woven, and the price of living. " A practical working machine 
is now in activity, weaving silk by the motive power of electricity. 
It is applied at Lyons and St. Etienne to the Jacquard loom." 
Children are extensively employed in Great Britain as drawers 
to weavers. " The great majority of hand-loom cotton weavers 
work in cellars, sufficiently lighted to enable them to throw the 
shuttle, but cheerless, because seldom visited by the sun. The 
reason cellars are chosen is that cotton, unlike silk, requires to 
be woven damp. The air, therefore, must be cool and moist, in- 
stead of warm and dry." In Philadelphia, the average payment 
of female weavers is from $2.50 to $4 per week. Spinners and 
spoolers make but from 75 cents to $2. They are generally un- 
skilful adults or very young girls. The number of female opera- 
tives engaged in the manufacture of textile fabrics in Philadelphia 
exceeds twelve thousand. A manufacturer in Providence writes 



LINEN MANUFACTURE. 191 

me : " We do not consider weaving particularly unhealthy. We 
pay on an average $1 per day, by the piece. They work eleven 
hours a day; the time could not be shortened. Men spend from 
three to twelve months learning ; women, from three to six weeks. 
Women are not paid while learning ; men are. All seasons are 
alike. There is always a demand for weavers. We employ 
twenty-two women, one fourth are American ; they are not inferior 
to men as weavers. Men pay $2 for good board ; women, $1.75." 
A manufacturer of negro cloth in Connecticut writes : " The 
employment is very healthy. We pay weavers from $3.75 to $5 
per week, and some make more by the piece. We pay men and 
women the same for their labor. Some parts are learned by 
women in two or three weeks. We generally pay women while 
learning. We sometimes stop a few days, in July and August, for 
water. They work eleven hours and a half, except Saturday ; 
then from eight to ten hours. The time could be shortened by 
adding extra help and looms, equal to difference of time. We' 
prefer women, because they weave more than men. All Americans. 
They are superior to men in tying knots. Good board, $1.25." 
A manufacturer of cotton cloths for calicoes writes : " Women 
and girls are employed in power-loom weaving. Weaving re- 
quires a little more labor and skill than the other departments. 
None under sixteen years are allowed to weave. Women are so 
employed over New England, much of New York, and Pennsyl- 
vania, but mostly in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecti- 
cut. There is always a demand for girl weavers. It requires from 
one to three months to learn to weave. They will continue to 
grow more expert for three years. They weave by the cut from 
thirty to forty pounds. The wages of an expert weaver are from 
$4 to $6 per week; board, $1.50 per week. Men weavers are 
paid per cut the same. An expert weaver attends four looms, 
weaving from 150 to 160 yards per day. Seamers generally pay 
their way at the end of four weeks. The employment is not 
thought unhealthy. 



177. Linen Manufacture. Very little flax has been 
raised in this country. The quantity grown was mostly for the 
seed and the fibre. Ireland grows and exports large quantities. 
The soil is not adapted to its growth. It is the result of the 
most severe labor and high culture. In France, almost every 
peasant woman has a flax plot. She tends its growth, reaps, 
dresses, spins, bleaches, and weaves it herself. Some women are 
there employed in rotting flax and hemp. Generally, the nianu- 



192 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

facturers of flax goods confine themselves to special departments. 
Some take the raw flax, and convert it into yarn, and then stop. 
Some take the yarn and weave it, and when woven, bleach it ; 
and some only take the unbleached woven cloth, and bleach it. 
In D. & Co.'s establishment in Ireland, all the departments are 
combined. Eight thousand people are dependent on this firm 
for support. Of these, four hundred females are employed in 
spinning and weaving flax. Hand-loom linen weaving is carried 
on chiefly in the north of Ireland, and, for the most part, made 
subsidiary to other employments — therefore, not the sole depend- 
ence of families. Women are employed in flax mills, in this 
country, England, and Canada West. A manufacturer writes 
from a village in New York : u The business is healthy, and 
women can do any part of the work, as well as men. Here, men 
receive from $9 to $14 per month. While learning, I pay my 
men $11 per month, and board them. The work is done in cold 
weather, away from the fire, and requires strong, healthy persons, 
warmly clad. The business is increasing in this country. The 
best season for work is from October till May, and sometimes 
later. It is not heavy work. I would pay women $5 a month 
and board, while learning; but to men would pay $11 a month 
and board.' 1 (Justice !) The treasurer of the Boston flax mills 
writes : " Dear Madam, women are employed on the different 
machines in preparing the stock, and in spinning and weaving. 
They are employed largely in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
but not much in the United States. They are paid from fifty to 
seventy -five cents a day, and from fifty cents to $1 for piecework. 
Ordinary female hands are paid about one half as much as men 
of the same stamp ; best workwomen about two thirds of same 
grade of men. Men are employed where it would be too difficult 
and laborious for women. For most work, a very short time is 
needed to learn ; for the higher grades, often many months or 
years, according to capacity of worker. Common hands can earn 
fifty cents at once, and we would pay about that, or more, while 
learning the better description of work ; but should not continue 
it, if they did not improve. A quick eye and hand, and a desire 
to give satisfaction, are the best qualifications. The prospect for 
employment in this branch is good. All the year work is fur- 
nished. Average time through the year for work is ten hours 
forty minutes. It is probable that a mill, where all hands were 
interested to do their best, would turn off as much work in ten 
hours as a similar mill would in eleven or twelve hours, where the 
hands were indifferent or careless. There are but few linen mills 
in this country, and probably in none of them is there a super- 
fluity of good hands. We employ one hundred and twenty 



SEWING THREAD. 193 

women and children. The work is different from that of the 
men. Our workwomen are mostly foreigners — Scotch, English, 
and some Irish. There is as much comfort in this occupation as 
laboring people would expect. The women pursue different 
branches. We find a great difference in the capacity of different 
women, but cannot suggest any superiority or inferiority as re- 
gards sexes. The general intellect among our women is very 
fair for foreigners, but would not be considered remarkable for 
Americans. Their evenings are their own, although there have 
been times, occasionally, when we have worked till nine o'clock, 
paying, of course, for extra work. The mill has a good library, 
and there is usually evening school in winter for those who wish 
to attend." 

178. Sewing Thread. A manufacturer in Andover, 
Massachusetts, writes : " We employ about one hundred women, 
who receive about $3 per week, working eleven hours per day. 
Women are sometimes paid while learning. Morality, industry, 
and intelligence best fit them for their work. They work at all 
seasons. Very few are Americans. Women are inferior only in 
strength to men pursuing the same branch." The secretary of 
the American Linen Thread Company writes : " We employ 
about sixty women in spinning, twisting, reeling, rolling, skein- 
ing, &c. Those that work by the week receive $3 ; those by the 
piece, more or less. Women do the lightest work, and are paid 
about half as much as men. There is a prospect of this branch 
of labor increasing. They have work all the year. Those that 
are paid by the day work twelve hours. The time could not be 
shortened without serious loss. Most are foreigners. Board, 
$1.50 to $2." A member of a firm in Schenectady writes : " We 
have thirty women in our flax and tow factory, because they are 
best adapted to the work. The work is healthy. We pay from 
$3 to $4.50 per week, working twelve hours per day. The 
working time could not be shortened. A superintendent would 
require from two to three years to learn. A girl, say sixteen 
years old, would require about a year. Learners receive half 
wages. Summer is the best season, but they have work all the 
year. There is no surplus of female workers in the business. 
Two thirds of our women are American, one third English. 
Women could not perform that part of the work done by men, 
and vice versa. One third board, and pay $1.50 per week. The 
Americans have a common school education, and are intelligent. 
The larger ones are teachers in Sabbath schools ; the smaller ones 
scholars. The best localities are in the Northern and Western 
States." — Shoe Thread. A manufacturer told me, most or all 
the flax used for shoe thread in this country is imported. li The 



194 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

greater part of the shoe thread used in the United States is spun 
by machinery, at Leeds, in England, from Russian flax." The flax 
of this country is not fine enough ; and, for bleaching, the climate 
of this country and Scotland is too changeable. If the bleach- 
ers succeed in getting it of a pure white, they extract the sub- 
stance — the life of the plant — so that it will not retain its strength. 
Flax is not much attended to in this country, but it is because 
the tariff is so low that no encouragement is given to manufac- 
turers. Pennsylvania makes more woven goods of coarse linen 
than any other State, and Philadelphia more than any other 
city. Labor is so cheap in Europe, that linen can be made there 
more cheaply than here. Mr. A. employs a number of small 
girls in his mills for winding the thread into balls, as it is im- 
ported in skeins, and pays them from $1.50 to $2 a week. They 
work only in daylight. He thinks the occupation is well filled. 
Most factories of the kind are in small towns where living is cheap. 



179. Woollen Manufacture. Women and children are 
not so much employed in the woollen as in other manufactures, 
owing to the severe labor required in some of the processes. Wool 
growing is increasing in the United States, particularly in Texas. 
We doubt not but many woollen manufactures will spring up 
when business revives. We called on the widow of a wool puller, 
to ascertain what the business is, and learned that it consists in 
steeping sheep skins in lime water, then rinsing them in clean 
water, then removing the wool from the skin, and packing it in 
bales to send away. The daughter of a wool puller in Utica 
writes : '• Part of the work of a wool puller could be performed 
by women — that of removing the wool from the skin, and sorting 
it according to the quality. In Gloucester, England, women were 
at one time employed as wool pullers. The business is healthy, 
owing to the presence of disinfectants employed in manufacturing. 
It could be made respectable and remunerative." A wool puller 
in Buffalo writes : " I employ some girls in sewing sheep skins. 
They are paid by the piece, and earn $4.50 a week. Board, $2. It 
requires a week for a woman to learn her part — a lifetime for a 
man to learn his. A steady hand and good eyesight are essential. 
There must be work of this kind as long as boots and shoes are 
fashionable. The most busy seasons are fall, winter, and spring. 
The best location is where sheep are raised and bark to be had." 
People employed in the making of cloth are wool sorters and pick- 
ers, scourers, carders, slubbers, spinners, warpers, sizers, weavers, 
burlers, boilers, millers, giggers or dressers, croppers, singers, 



CARPETS. 195 

fuzers, glossers, drawers, and packers. Some of these are women. 
I am sorry to say that carding — the most unhealthy process of 
all — is performed almost exclusively by women, and at low prices. 

180. Blankets, " Blankets were first made at Bristol, 
England, by a poor weaver named Thomas Blanket, who gave his 
name to this peculiar manufacture of woollen cloths." One 
hundred and twenty-two women are reported in the census of 
Great Britain for 1850, as blanket manufacturers. A blanket 
manufacturer in New Hampshire writes : " Women are employed 
in carding, weaving, and binding. The work is not unhealthy. 
Average wages are seventy cents per day of eleven hours, and 
they are paid by the piece. Women receive about two thirds of 
the wages of men, because they do less laborious work. It requires 
from one week to three months to learn. They are paid small 
wages while learning. The manufacture of blankets will in- 
crease. Business is the same at all seasons. There is a demand 
for hands in many of the manufacturing villages, and a surplus 
in country towns. We have twenty women, all American. They 
do light work faster than men. They pay for board twenty-one 
cents per day, in private families." 

181. Carpets. Mr. Lagrange writes : "The carpets of 
Smyrna and Caramania, so widely esteemed, are evidence of 
what woman's genius can produce. They are all woven by femi- 
nine hands." In 1858 there were 2,500 persons employed in the 
manufacture of carpets in and near Philadelphia. Ingrain and 
Venetian are the kinds mostly made there, but some of a very 
cheap quality are also manufactured. Those made at Hartford 
and Lowell are all worsted goods. The business, we believe, has 
been a successful and lucrative one. It is said that much carpet- 
ing is sold in this country, as English, that is in reality American. 
Our finest carpets are imported. I visited Mr. H.'s carpet 
factory, New York city, and saw the entire process, from putting 
the wool in to its coming out in various kinds of carpeting, in- 
grain, velvet, Brussels, tapestry, &c. From that manufactory 
we have the following report : " Females tend carding, spinning, 
spooling, weaving, and other machines, in the manufacture of car- 
peting. The employment is not unhealthy. The branch of manu» " 
facture and the capacities of females vary the wages from 50 
cents to $1 per day of eleven hours. Three fourths work by the 
piece. Males and females are not employed at the same kind of 
work. The time required to learn any branch of the carpet 
trade depends on the natural talent and application of the 
learner. Many never become proficient enough to pursue the 
business profitably. The prices paid to learners depend on their 
success. Health, natural talent, and application are essential. 






196 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

The prospect of employment in the business is good. They have 
work the whole year, except during unusual depressions of the 
trade. Whether the work time of eleven hours could be short- 
ened would depend on the profit on the quantity produced in 
ten hours, compared with that produced in eleven hours. There 
is no demand for female labor at the present time. We employ 
from 500 to 600 females, because their labor is cheaper. About 
one third are Americans. The comfort and remuneration is 
better than the average of other employments in this city. They 
are employed by us in all branches they can be. Females per- 
form some branches better than men. They have free evening 
schools, libraries, lectures, and churches in abundance. About 
one half board. The majority board in private families, the 
comfort depending generally on the price paid." Carpet manu- 
facturers in Wrentham, Massachusetts, write : " We employ women 
in winding yarn. It is unhealthy only because of sitting so 
steadily. Women average $14 per month, and are paid by the 
piece. They work ten hours a day. It requires but a few 
weeks to learn the business. Women are paid something while 
learning. They are employed all the year. We employ eight, 
because the work is better adapted to them. All the work- 
women are foreigners. Men, as a general thing, do not want to 
be confined to indoor work, unless the wages are high. Good 
board can be had at $1.50 per week." A gentleman, who was 
once superintendent of the carpet factory at Lowell, informed me 
all the weavers were females, when he was there, and earned from 
$3.50 to $1.00 on an average. They had about thirty pickers 
(females), whose business it was to pick the knots and loose wool 
off the carpets. 

182. Carpet Bags, K. & M., carpet-bag makers, have 
a factory in Newark. The carpet bags are sewed up and the 
buttons put in by machines. The lining is put in by hand. It 
is piecework, and the girls earn from $3 to $6 a week. It re- 
quires but a short time to become sufficiently expert to make it 
pay. The busiest times are from February 1st to June, and 
from the middle of July to the 1st of November. One of the pro- 
prietors thinks the prospect to learners is good, for the business 
will extend. It has increased five hundredfold in the last five 
years. Their girls are mostly Americans. Making trunk covers is 
piecework. The linings could be put in trunks and valises 
and the varnish put on by girls. The linings could be better put 
in valises than trunks by women, as they are lighter and less 
difficult to handle. At TI.'s carpet-bag factory, I was told 
they employ seventy girls, and make from ninety to one hundred 
dozen bags a day. They keep their hands all the year, with 



CASSIMEKE. 197 

the exception of three weeks. Some work by machine and some 
by hand. They take learners when busy. A smart girl can 
learn in making two or three dozen bags — of course, is not paid 
while learning. They used to allow a few hands, accustomed to 
the work, to give instruction to learners, having the profits of 
their work for their time. Those that work by machine can 
earn from $3 to $4.50 ; hand sewers from $3 to $6. These 
work by the piece. Those paid by the week work ten hours, and 
earn from §2.50 to $5. The gentleman thinks the prospect for 
learners to enter the business is poor. I think differently, if 
the statement that he made is true, that there are no manufacturers 
West or South. A regulation that struck me as being very 
unjust was, that if a girl learns in their factory and goes 
elsewhere to seek work, she cannot be taken into their factory 
again, unless she makes eight or ten dozen bags for them without 
pay. A manufacturer of carpet and oil-cloth bags writes : " We 
pay by the piece, and women earn from $4 to $6 per week, work- 
ing ten hours a day. Women can learn in one month, if skilful 
with the needle. Spring and fall are the best seasons, but we 
find work for our hands through the winter. They work at 
home." 

183. Cassimere. A manufacturer of cassimere in New 
Hampshire writes : " We pay mostly by the week, $3.50, work- 
ing eleven hours a day. We pay the same to women as men. It 
requires from two to twelve weeks to learn. They are paid what 
they can earn while learning. There is no surplus of workwomen 
in this branch of labor. Our girls board in families, and pay 
$1.34 per week." A manufacturer in Vermont says : " Twenty 
women are employed by me. They are all American or English. 
They are paid according to the amount of work they do. Girls 
that weave make $3, besides board. Some are paid by the yard, 
and some by the week. They are paid as much as men for the 
same kind of work. It usually takes four weeks to learn to 
weave. Learners give their time. Work is performed ten hours 
a day all the year. Women prefer factory to housework. They 
pay $1.50 per week for board. ' ? A manufacturer in New 
Hampshire writes : " We pay from $2.50 to $4.50 per week. 
For the work that women can do in our establishment, they are 
worth more than men, as they can work quicker. Women soon 
learn to weave, but for the first six months they are not worth 
more than half pay. The prospect for future employment is 
good. The best seasons for work are spring, summer, and fall. 
They are usually employed ten hours a day. We employ none 
but American women. Some parts of our business are suitable 
for women, but we can get boys cheaper. Board $1.25 per 



198 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

week." B. Brothers, of Proctorsville, Vermont, write : " We 
employ from thirty to forty American women in preference to 
men, because the work is more suitable for them. Prospects 
for increase of employment in this line are very flattering. The 
women average $2.50 per week with board. They work twelve 
hours a day, and can be employed all the year. They are su- 
perior in all respects to men. If they were not, we should em- 
ploy men. Their facilities for mental and moral culture are 
good. Women are paid less than men, on account of the work 
being light. Board $1.50 per week." The Globe Woollen 
Company (Utica, New York) write : " Our women, seventy-five 
in number, earn from $3 to $6 a week, and are paid both by the 
piece and week. Men and women work together in the weaving 
room. It requires but a few days to learn to weave, although 
experience is valuable, both on account of wages and excellence 
of production. Mental and physical ability ought to be com- 
bined to insure success. The prospect for future employment is 
good. Continual employment is given. Our hands work 12 
hours each day, Saturdays 10^. One fourth are Americans, and 
they live and dress well. The demand for labor is good all 
through the country. There is no part of our business where 
women could be advantageously introduced, where not now em- 
ployed. The women have all the facilities a city affords for 
mental and aesthetic culture." 

184. Cloths, A manufacturer of gray cloth in Vermont 
writes : " Women are employed at spinning, carding, burling, 
and weaving. We have ten, because they are more easily ob- 
tained than men. We pay women from |2 to $3.50 per week, 
and board them. They work twelve hours per clay. The work 
done by men requires more than double the experience of that 
performed by women. Women can learn in four weeks, men 
in sixteen. Women are paid half wages while learning. They 
are busy except in the winter. All board with me." C. & 
Sons, of T., N. Y., write : " Experienced hands receive 13.75 per 
week — inexperienced $3 — board included. Women are not em- 
ployed at' the same work as men. It requires two years to learn 
our business — six months for women. We adopt the ten-hour 
system. There is no difference in seasons as to work, except in 
case of low water. Our labor yields sufficient to keep them until 
they find an opportunity to marry. They have a good library — 
ten periodicals every week. They pay for board from $1.50 to 
$1.75 per week." A manufacturer in Derby, Conn., writes : 
" We employ about fifteen women, because they are cheaper and 
more easily obtained; but many are now using male weavers. 
They earn from $3 to $6 per week, and are paid both ways. 



CLOTHS. 199 

They work eleven hours. To work ten instead of eleven hours, 
we would lose that amount of the product of those who work by 
the day. I think there is a demand for such labor all through 
New England, and I do not know where there is a surplus of 
such help. We have had but few whose parents were born in 
America. Women might be employed on shearing machines. 
They are not, because it is as easy getting boys. Women have 
less strength and endurance, and are less constant at work, but 
quicker in motion and less liable to bad habits. Board for 
females from $2.25 to $2.50 per week." A manufacturing com- 
pany of satinets and printing cloths, Troy, N. Y.. give the follow 
ing information : " We pay from $2.50 to $6 per week, average 
$4 50. Men and women get the same wages for the same work. 
Women learn in from two to four weeks. At best it is but par- 
tially learned. Some are paid while learning, and some are not. 
There is now, and always will be full employment. We furnish 
steady work all the year. The hands work twelve hours per day. 
The time could be shortened, but the workers would lose by it. 
There is a demand for female labor of this kind in Cohoes, N. Y. 
We have sixty -nine women, and one half are Americans. They 
are well fed and dress better than any other class of working 
people. Women are more steady and neater than men. They 
are all Protestant, and their intelligence is about the average. 
They pay $1.50 per week for good board." The Monsoon 
Woollen Co., Mass., say : " We pay fourteen mills per yard for 
weaving. The women make just the same as the men, and per- 
form the same kind of work. They earn on an average eighty- 
three cents per day of twelve hours. The work can be done 
without apprenticeship. The prospect is that our business will 
be on the increase for years. Our help are employed the year 
round : three quarters are Americans. They have their evenings 
after seven o'clock. They pay $2 per week for board." The 
agent of Shady Lee Mills, B. I., writes : " Women are employed 
in woollen mills in England, Germany, France, and this country. 
They are paid in our mill by the piece, and earn $5 per week on 
an average. Women weavers earn as much as men. It takes a 
lifetime to learn; some learn better than others. Learners are 
paid. The business is improving daily. Women work all the 
year round, unless broken down. They work twelve hours a day. 
The time could not be shortened. The supply of hands about 
equals the demand in this manufacture. We employ seventy-five 
women, because they are better for weavers. Nearly all our 
work people can read and write. Board $1.75." Mr. H., a manu- 
facturer in Massachusetts, writes : He "pays from $14 to $18 a 
month, working by the piece. While learning they are paid for 



200 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

what they do. They can earn fair wages after two weeks' experi- 
ence. They work thirteen hours a day, and are employed through 
the year. There is no surplus of weavers. He employs twenty- 
five, because they are better adapted to the work. Women are 
superior in hand work. Board $6 a month." A satinet manu- 
facturer in Maine, writes : " Our women weave by the cut and 
earn about $6 per week. A person can get an insight of the 
business in a few years ; but to get a thorough knowledge requires 
at least the English term of apprenticeship — seven years. Women 
are paid half price while learning. Summer is the best season, 
but our women are employed the year round. They work twelve 
hours — which is the usual time here, and less would be a loss. 
Women are handier than men, and can be boarded for less. We 
have churches in the village and a good moral influence. Board 
$1.50 per week; comforts quite equal to those of their homes." 
Manufacturers in Pittsfield, Mass., inform us " they have a num- 
ber of women employed in weaving and sewing, mostly weaving. 
The employment is considered healthy, and the condition of 
weavers is entirely comfortable, as this is, of course, for the in- 
terest of the employers as well as the employees. The average 
time of work is thirteen hours. The wages paid them is from $4 
per week to $6. They are paid by the yard, and their earnings 
depend upon their attention, activity, and capability. They are 
paid $3 a week while learning. Women weavers earn quite as 
much as men, and can stand the confinement as well, if not better. 
We have no difficulty in keeping our looms supplied, and fre- 
quently have applications which we are obliged to reject. We 
employ sixty women, nearly one half Americans. In this place 
they have every advantage for moral and mental culture. Those 
who have parents or friends working in the establishment usually 
live with them; and those who have not, live at our boarding 
house, which is as comfortable and well regulated as any house 
in the country. The price charged for board is from $1.25 to 
$1.50 per week." A company in North Berwick, Me., writes: 
"We pay both ways; when by the week, from $2.50 to $1. 
Males and females do not perform the same kind of work with 
us. The time of learning varies with the capacities of the women. 
Some of our hands have been with us more than ten years. 
Seasons alike. They work eleven hours. We employ twenty- 
five women, because it is more economical. Not one of our women 
will do housework. Our employees are Yankee girls — can all 
read and write ; and, so far as we know, converse intelligently on 
general subjects. They have their evenings and a portion of each 
Saturday. Board $1.33^ per week." We would add that every 
cotton and woollen manufacturer from whom we have heard, ex- 



FLANNELS. 201 

presses the opinion that their occupation is healthy. All, we be- 
lieve, pay some hands by the week and some by the piece, and 
most pay men and women at the same rate for the same kind of 
work. It will be observed that the rates paid for labor decrease 
the farther you go North, but that board is also something less. 

185. Coverlets. A manufacturer of woollen coverlets in 
Allentown, Penn., answers inquiries in regard to prices paid, &c, 
as follows : "I employ eight American girls for spooling wool 
and cotton yarn in my coverlet manufactory, and pay two cents 
per pound. They earn from $2- to $2.50 per week. I pay girls 
the same as boys. The prospect for increase of work is good. 
There is a surplus of hands here. I prefer girls, as they have 
more patience than boys " 

186. Dry Goods Refinishers. A. & Co. employ 
women when busy to put up dress goods, cravats, ribbons, &c. 
They pay $3 a week. I was told by a satinet printer and refin- 
isher, that he employs one woman to sew the ends of the cloth 
together. She does it with a machine, and earns $5 a week, 
working ten hours a day. The coloring matter rubs off on the 
hands. S. employs some women, and pays $3 a week. He gives 
them about eight months' employment. During two months in 
summer and two in winter, there is not enough doing to employ 
them. He says some women, like some men, know nothing but 
how to eat. He finds it difficult to get women of intelligence 
and judgment to do his work. (I should think he would, for such 
wages.) The girls fold, label, and pack. There are but three 
large houses of the kind in New York. At another place we saw 
a girl who gets $3 a week for such work — ten hours a day. 

187. Flannels. Flannels differ much in color and qual- 
ity. Employers are unanimous in pronouncing the work healthy. 
If the sum paid foreign countries for flannels and blankets were 
invested in manufactories in our country, it would give employ- 
ment to many, and tend to encourage home industry. A flannel 
manufacturer in Stockport, New York, writes : " We employ 
women at weaving and spooling. Women and girls are paid 
mostly by the piece, and earn from S3 to $5 per week. No males 
are employed at the same work as females. It usually takes 
about a week to learn to weave. We do not pay learners. We 
will increase the number of women as we increase our product. 
All seasons are alike as respects employment. Our hands work 
twelve hours per day. The time could not be shortened without 
loss to both employer and employed. We have about forty 
females, and prefer them, as it gives the whole family work. Eight 
tenths are American. The work is as light and comfortable as 
any in the mill. There is no other work suitable than that in 

9* 



202 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

which they are now engaged. All our women can read and 
write, and are already quite intelligent, particularly the Ameri- 
cans. We do not employ many under sixteen years of age, and 
those younger are usually sent to school a part of the year. 
Board is $6 per month in good, respectable families." A man- 
ufacturer in Dover, Maine, replies to a circular asking informa- 
tion : " I employ women as weavers, carders, spoolers, and one 
as a warper-on to draw the web. Women earn from $2.75 to $5 
per week, eleven hours per day. Weavers are paid by the piece. 
I pay men from 83 cents to $1.50 per day. Women do the 
lighter and easier work. Some parts are not adapted to women, 
that is one reason why we pay less, and perhaps custom has some- 
thing to do with the prices of labor Women learn their part in 
from one to six weeks, but it requires some years of experience 
to be a manufacturer. For some kinds of work we pay from the 
beginning ; for others, after one or two weeks. The prospect is 
fair ; work, constant. In large manufacturing places, there is a 
demand for labor of this kind Women are employed because 
they work cheaper. Women do their kind of work better than men. 
Our women are Americans, and appear to enjoy life well. They 
have the early morning and evening, and the Sabbath for them- 
selves. More than one half are church members. Those that have 
relations living near the factory, board with them, and pay $1.50 
per week." A manufacturer in Conway, Massachusetts, writes : 
V We employ women in weaving, burling, sewing, and numbering 
flannels. They receive from 50 cents to $1 per day of twelve hours. 
Women doing the same kind of labor as men receive the same 
price. It requires from one to four weeks to learn. If our 
business does not pay better in future than the past, we had 
better stop. In the more difficult part of our work there is a 
demand for hands. Men make better work than women. One 
fourth are American. Board, $1.50, to $1.75." A manufacturer 
in Morgantown, New York, writes : " The employment is as 
healthy as any indoor work. The wages average about $5 per 
week, they being paid by the piece. It takes about four years to 
learn the business, so as to conduct it in its several branches. I 
pay their expenses while learning. The best season is the fall. 
Work lasts ten hours — if obliged to run longer, we pay extra. 
We think women more to be depended on than men. We have 
no department suitable for women but what is filled by them. 
Board, $2 a week — quite good. In the cities board is seldom 
over $2 per week for workwomen. The rent and price of provisions 
are too high to keep a boarding house as it should be on such 
terms. Our wages may be lower in the country, but expenses 
are much lower also, and consequently the laborer is able to save 



GLOVES. 203 

iiiure money." Manufacturers in Keene, N. H. } write: "We 
pay one half $3, the other, $3.80 per week, twelve hours a day. 
We pay the same to both sexes when the quantity and q.uaiity 
are the same. A carder will learn in one month, a weaver in 
three months. The qualities wanted are industry, sobriety, per- 
severance, constructiveness, and amiability. All seasons alike 
good. To shorten the time of thirteen hours would be a loss to 
both parties. All branches are well supplied with workers. 
Women have more patience, tact, neatness, and are more reliable 
than men. All our women are well fed, well clothed, well 
housed, and some possess the luxuries, and even elegancies of life. 
We have six places of worship, a public library, book stores, and 
newspapers in abundance. Board, $1.50." 

188. Gloves. Kid, silk, cotton, and woollen are the kinds 
of gloves most used. They differ much in quality. Kid and 
leather are most numerous. The price of labor, the difficulty in 
obtaining the best kid, and the want of experienced workmen, are 
such that the finest kid gloves have not been made in the United 
States. An immense number of kid gloves are annually import- 
ed. In Paris, women are paid from sixty cents to $1 a dozen 
for sewing gloves. The French excel in the manufacture of kid 
gloves. French workmen are very economical in cutting out the 
kid. In France 375,000 dozens of skins are cut into gloves 
every year. Nearly 3,500 female glove sewers are employed in 
Vienna. Immense quantities of buckskin gloves and mittens are 
made in Johnstown and Gloversville, New York. " Most Amer- 
ican manufactures have been introduced by sending the goods 
into the country by peddlers, or the manufacturers themselves 
selling them in that way. This trade was commenced so." The 
manufacture of buckskin gloves and mittens is mostly confined 
to small towns and the country. The cutting is done by men. 
The sewing is given out to those who do the work at home, and 
receive for their labor from $4 to $6 per week. It requires but 
a few weeks to learn. A manufacturer of kid and buckskin 
gloves, in Philadelphia, has all his sewing done by hand. He will 
not use machines for cutting out and sewing, as it would throw 
many of his workwomen out of employment. Those who are neat 
ancl intelligent obtain a very good livelihood by it. They take 
the work home, and earn $6 a week or more ; beginners only 
$1,50 or $2. The kid is imported from South America, and not 
so fine as French kid. A glove manufacturer, New York, who 
lived in Johnstown eighteen years, told me that u girls can earn 
at glove sewing from 83 to $6 a week. Those who board in the 
families of their employers receive less, because of their board. 
Many gloves are made up by farmers' daughters at home, both 



204 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

by hand and machine. A good sewer would not find it difficult 
to make gloves. Most of the gloves made in factories are 
stitched by machines. Singer's and Grover & Baker's are pre- 
ferred. Handworkers do not receive quite so good wages. 
Women used to cut out gloves with scissors, but now men cut 
them by striking with a hammer a tool the shape of a glove. 
The plan is preferred, because of being cheaper. The knowledge 
of dressing kid seems to be lost to foreigners in coming over the 
ocean." A manufacturer in Springfield, Mass., writes: "We 
employ some women in making buckskin gloves and mittens. Some 
work by the piece, and some by the week, and earn from $3 to 
$5. Those who work by the week spend ten hours, sewing. It 
takes females from two hours to four weeks to learn. Patience, 
perseverance, and taste are needed by learners. The best season 
for work is from February to November. They are out of work 
about two months at times. Most are Americans. They can 
use a needle better than a man." A glover in Salem writes : 
" Our women sew by hand, and earn $3 per week. Men spend 
three years in learning — women six months. The prospect for 
work is poor, as importation is destroying the business." A 
manufacturer at Grloversville writes : "Women earn from $3 to 
$5 a week, ten hours a day. Males get as much again as women. 
A smart woman will learn in eight months. Prospect of work 
in the future is good." Manufacturers in Broadalbin, N. Y., 
write me they employ twelve American women at the shop, and 
about one hundred out of the shop, finishing up. When paid by 
the week, they receive from $2 to $4.50, and work ten hours a da}\ 
The comparison in prices in male and female labor is about $2 
to $1, for the reason that it requires more strength, labor, and 
skill to perform the man's part. Men spend two or three years 
in learning — women, six months. Punctuality, sobriety, and a 
liberal education, together with a steady nerve, will insure success 
in our business. (Some one else suggests, mechanical talent.) 
As long as there are feet to wear moccasins, and hands to wear 
gloves, our kind of business must thrive. Board in neat and 
commodious houses, $2 for women." A glover in New Hamp- 
shire writes : " Women sew by the piece for me ; most have fam- 
ilies, do their own work, and sew when they can — so I cannot 
say how much they would earn, if they sewed constantly. A man 
would have to spend from two to four years qualifying himself 
to superintend ; the part done by women can be learned in from 
two to six weeks. Summer is the best season, but good workers 
have constant employment. All are Americans. Any locality 
is good where water power may be had. Ladies pay for board 
from $1.50 to $1.70 per week." Another in Perth, N. Y., says: 



LINSEYS. 205 

" Some of our workers use sewing machines; others fit and pre- 
pare the goods for them. They earn from $3 to $4.75. The 
male and female labor is different in our establishment. I think 
the business permanent. Best time for work is from 1st of 
March to 1st of November. They work all daylight, except at 
meal times. When a certain amount of work is required in a 
given time, the women are apt to overwork themselves and slight 
the work. The wives and daughters of mechanics and farmers 
do the piecework at their homes. All Americans. Board, from 
$1.75 to $2." u At Gloversville the men cut, and machines do 
the sewing. Five pair of mits and two pair of gloves are a heavy, 
days work. Gloves are worth 75 cents per day to cut ; and to 
make from 12j- cents for a light article, to 18 cents for heavy 
ones." — Woollen Gloves. I was told by a man who employed 
eight girls to crochet woollen gloves for him, that he pays fifty 
cents a dozen pairs. He makes over five cents profit on a pair 
when selling to the wholesale stores ; and in retailing, nine cents 
a pair. He says a right expeditious girl can make one dozen 
pairs a day. He employs his girls all the year. Most that at- 
tempt to learn find their progress so slow that they get dis- 
couraged, and give it up. • It is best to learn early in life. The 
Germans excel. 

189. Linseys. An agent for a manufacturing company of 
linseys and flannels in Rhode Island, writes : " I employ fifty-eight 
women in spooling yarn and weaving, and pay from $3 to $5 a 
week. Our men are paid $1 per day, because they are able to 
do more. Men run three looms; girls, two. The organs that 
manufacture vitality in women are not allowed, by lacing strings, 
to attain more than two thirds their natural size. If nature could 
have her way with them, especially when young, they would earn 
more in the weaving shop than men, because they are naturally 
quicker and smarter. They afe paid something while learning, 
which requires three months. Good female workers have always 
been scarce since I have been in the business— twenty years. 
We might employ more, if we could get them. April, May, and 
June are the most busy seasons. They work twelve hours. To 
shorten the time two hours would make one sixth difference, 
which the work people would not be willing to lose. We have 
more families than single help. Those who board pay from 
$1.75 to §2.25 per week. The boarding houses have to be helped 
by us, to enable them to take boarders at these prices." Mr. T., 
writing from Rhode Island, mentions, in addition to the branches 
stated above as performed by women, that of warping. He in- 
forms us, the work is not more unhealthy than housework, but 
complains that his women are careless, in bad weather, going to 



206 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

and from the mill. u Wages, when running full time, average 
from $3.75 to $6 per week. Weavers are paid by the yard, 
spoolers by the bunch, warpers by the web, and extra hands by 
the week. Men's wages are from 75 cents to $1.25 per day, but 
men's board is from 50 to 75 cents per week more. The prospect 
for work in the future depends upon the state of the country. 
Spring and summer are the best seasons for work. From March 
20th to October 20th, the hands work from seven to seven; 
from October to March, until 8 p. m. Their wages are according 
to the number of yards woven ; so of course it is to their interest, 
as well as our own, to run full time. We find male labor scarcer 
than female. Most of our hands are Americans. Our mills are 
well ventilated and well warmed. The company have a board- 
ing house under their own supervision, but the women are at 
liberty to board in private families, and some do. The majority 
of young ladies in our employ are farmers' daughters, not really 
compelled to work, but prefer to do it, and in most instances use 
the means for obtaining an education. Instrumental music is 
taught in a seminary near the mill, by a young lady, who obtained 
her education with the means gained by workiDg in this mill. 
We have from one to three nights every week devoted to literary 
societies, reading circles, &c, in ail of which, the ladies from this 
and neighboring mills take an active part. Some eight or ten 
who worked at the mill during the summer are now attending 
school. Board $2.25 for men ; $1.75 for women." The propri- 
etor of the Kenyon mills, R. L, writes : " Probably one half the 
operatives in mills, in this part of the world, are women. Weav- 
ers are paid by the yard, and earn from $3 to $6 per week. Men 
are generally hired by the day. An intelligent woman will be 
able to run her loom after two or three weeks' practice. It is 
common to put learners on looms with experienced weavers for 
two or three weeks. From 20th March to 20th September, my 
working time is from sunrise to sunset, the remainder of the year, 
until eight o'clock in the evening. My weavers prefer to work 
full time as they are paid by the yard. There is generally a de- 
mand for good weavers in this part of the country all the year. 
Weavers make most money in summer. Large mills are being 
supplied with foreign help. Very few Americans are willing to 
work with them. Women are employed in mills on all kinds of 
work which they can do, and are preferred because they are more 
steady. Nearly all my mill girls are daughters of farmers in 
the neighborhood, and have had a fair common school education. 
Several of my weavers take newspapers or other periodicals, and 
carry them into the mill to read, when they can do so without 
interfering with their work. Some take sewing or knitting. 



WOOLLEN SHAWLS SHODDY YARN. 207 

Board $1.75 for women ; $2.25 for men. If we did not keep 
comfortable boarding houses, our help would find employment in 
other places. Any smart, good girls, who want work, need have 
no hesitation in coming to Rhode Island to look for work in 
mills." 

190. Woollen Shawls. The secretary of the Waterloo 
Woollen Shawl Company writes : u Women are employed by us 
in weaving, carding, &c. The work is not unhealthy. It is paid 
for mostly by the piece, and hands earn from $2.50 to $3 per 
week. Most of them earn as much as males ; and some, more. 
They are employed twelve hours. Skill, industry, and good 
character are necessary. The prospect of future employment is 
good. There is no difference in the seasons for work. In weaving 
there is no surplus. We employ two hundred and fifty women, 
because they do better work than men. We employ but very 
few young girls, and they generally work at home under the eyes 
of parents, and attend school at least four months in the year." 

191. Shoddy. At flock or shoddy manufactories, girls 
are employed to separate rags of different qualities and colors, 
and to cut the seams and buttons off. The rags are placed in 
machines and cut to pieces, then put in other machines that grind 
them to flocks. From them satinet is made. Women are paid 
so much one hundred pounds, and earn from 81.50 to S3 per week. 
They are busy all the year. It is dirty work, and, I think, un- 
wholesome on account of the dust. Boys attend the machinery 
for cutting and grinding, and are paid about the same wages as 
the girls, and probably a little more. Girls could just as well 
attend the machines. Modern improvements have made wool 
shoddy susceptible of receiving a fine dye, and it is made into 
cloth for soldiers' and sailors' uniforms, and for pilot coats; into 
blanketing, drugget, stair and other carpeting, and into very 
beautiful table covers. A manufacturer of wool shoddy in 
Massachusetts writes ; " I employ Irish women at $3 per week, 
of eleven hours a day in winter and twelve in summer. Men 
receive $6 per week. Women cannot perform their labor. It 
requires two weeks to learn. They receive small wages the first 
two or three weeks. The business is probably permanent. The 
work is hard. Women do best for picking and sorting stock and 
tending cards. They pay $1.50 a week for Irish fare." 

192. Yarn. A manufacturer of stocking yarn, in Spring 
Valley, New York, writes : " Girls are employed in twisting and 
reeling yarn. The employment is not unhealthy. We pay some 
by the piece, and some by the week ; those by the week receive 
$2.50. The wages are the same for men and women. To learn 
the whole business requires from three to five years ; that part 



208 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

done by girls, from one to two months. They are paid while 
learning. The prospect of employment is as good as that of busi- 
ness generally. Our girls work the year round; they work 
eleven hours. To shorten the time would be a disadvantage to 
us, and a loss in wages to the hands. Boys would do for us, but 
are not so easily governed. The work is easy and comfortable." 
A yarn manufacturer in Stoughton, Mass., writes me : " I pay 
$2 per week, and furnish board to those that twist and card. The 
labor of the women is much cleaner and easier than that of the 
men. Men receive from $1 to $1.75 per day, board included. I 
charge them $2,50 per week — women $1.75. Much of the men's 
labor requires strength, knowledge, and skill. It requires two 
or three months to learn it well. Women work, on an average, 
eleven hours and a half. I should ]ike the ten-hour system, but 
cannot adopt it, unless others do the same. The supply of hands 
is adequate to the demand. Ladies have done some parts of our 
work, now performed by men, and have received equal wages; 
but the labor being hard, and women's dress being inconvenient, 
we have abandoned the plan." 



183. Silk Manufacture. The duty on raw silk is so 
very great that it will not do to import it into the United States 
for manufacture. We suppose, if a duty in proportion to their 
value were levied on silk and linen goods, we would no longer be 
so dependent on other nations for these articles. Or if a reduc- 
tion were made on the duty of the raw material, capitalists would 
establish silk manufactures in the United States. Individual 
failures here are attributed by some to ignorance and want of 
experience ; by others, to the nature of the climate. The support 
afforded by our Government to the culture of silk has been very 
fickle — to-day encouraged, to-morrow neglected. The experiments 
that have been made prove the feasibility of growing the mul- 
berry, and raising the silkworm in this climate. The silk pro- 
duced was of good quality, and, but for imperfect implements and 
want of experience, might have done well. The cheapness of 
labor in older countries affords an advantage that we have not. 
Most of the raw silk manufactured in the United States comes 
from China. The women there rear silkworms; they also reel 
and weave the silk. Not many years back silk winding was 
done by men in England. " In the silk factories in France, 
there are two unwholesome processes entirely carried on by 
women : the first is the drawing of the cocoons, when the hands 
must be kept constantly in boiling water, and the odor of the 



RIBBONS. . 209 

putrefying insects constantly fills the lungs ; the second is carding , 
the floss, the fine lint of which affects the bronchial tubes. Six 
out of every eight women employed, die in a few months. 
Healthy young girls from the mountains soon develop tubercular 
consumption ; and, to complete the dreadful tale, they are kept 
upon the lowest wages, being paid only twenty cents, where a 
man would earn sixty." " One silk manufacturer in Valencia, 
Spain, gives employment to 170 women and young girls." In 
Lyons, France, many women are employed in the silk manu- 
facture, for particulars of which see Revue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 
15th, 1860. Silk weavers mostly work in attics, where they 
can have the best light to distinguish shades of colors, and where 
the silk, which moisture would damage, can be kept perfectly 
dry. In Spitalfields, the silk manufacture is mostly carried on 
by the workmen at their homes, their families assisting. Each 
child has his own branch, and the wife hers. It is the same case 
in the making of lace, artificial flowers, embroidery, straw braid- 
ing, &c. The strength of silk is greater than that of cotton, flax, 
or wool. Machinery is now employed for winding the silk off of 
cocoons, but formerly it was done by hand. Mrs. 0. told us her 
husband employs a few girls to spool silk, which he dyes for a 
large dress trimming manufactory next door. The girls earn 
from $2 to $3 a week. The pasting of patterns of floss silk upon 
cards was done by men a few years ago in England, but women, 
after great effort, have succeeded in gaining the work, so much 
more suitable for them. " A lady in Jefferson county, la., has 
made herself a handsome silk dress from cocoons of her own 
raising." A manufacturer of silk goods in Paterson, N. J., 
writes: ".We mostly employ girls from twelve to eighteen. The 
work is not unhealthy. Average pay is $3 per week. To learn, 
a girl must be about twelve years of age ; it takes about two 
months. Pay begins after two weeks. To learn, one should be 
smart with her hands, and careful with the material. There is a 
good prospect ahead for weavers. All seasons are good, except 
during a panic. They work twelve hours. The time could not 
be shortened conveniently. If other States worked less time, we 
could too. We employ a hundred girls and twenty-five boys. 
Seventy -five per cent, are American. Board, $1.75. Women 
could be employed more extensively in weaving. Men are em- 
ployed upon the spinners, women in winding, &c." 

194. Ribbons. In England, formerly, a woman was not 
at all engaged in ribbon weaving, as the men thought it an en- 
croachment on their sphere of labor ; nor were they even allowed 
to wind silk preparatory to its use in weaving. Manufacturers 
of ribbon in West Newton, Massachusetts, write : " We employ 



210 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

from forty to eighty women, and prefer them to men in all de- 
partments they are fitted for. They are paid by the week, and 
earn from $2 to $6, according to the value of their work. It 
requires from six months to a year to learn the business. Women 
are paid something while learning. Good character and fair ca- 
pacity are needed. Our women work eleven hours. If the time 
was reduced to ten, the loss would be the use of machinery. 
There is a surplus of hands in New York, by reason of immi- 
gration. Women are inferior in mechanical skill, superior in 
steadiness." 

195. Sewing Silk. The first factory for spinning silk in 
this country was established in Northampton, Massachusetts. 
There are 156 hands in Massachusetts, engaged in the manufac- 
ture of sewing silk. Two other factories have been established 
since then in Paterson, New Jersey ; one for the manufacture of 
the raw silk, and the other the manufacture of sewing silks, 
fringes, gimps, and tassels. There is a manufactory in Mansfield, 
Connecticut, and one in Newport, Kentucky. Most of the sewing 
silk used in this country under the name of Italian silk is made 
by American manufacturers. An agent for the manufacture of 
twist in Paterson, New Jersey, told me their best hands do not 
earn over $3.50 a week and work eleven hours. They try girls, 
that wish to learn, two weeks, and if they find them fitted for 
the work, pay $1 a week. There is no danger from the machinery 
as in cotton factories, nor has it the unhealthy tendency of cotton, 
as there are no particles flying from the material like the lint that 
flies from cotton. It does not require an apt person long to learn. 
The girls stand all the time. They have to watch the machinery, 
and tie the threads that break. The agent said, in the Eastern 
States girls are paid better in silk factories, but they are more 
competent workers. There some earn from sixty to eighty cents 
per day. The work is neat and clean. Some manufacturers of 
sewing machine silk and twist write me from Boston : " We employ 
fifty women winding and twisting silk. They work eleven hours 
in winter and twelve in summer, and earn from $3 to 16 per week. 
Some are paid by the piece and some by the week. Men are paid 
from 11 to $2.50 a day. Integrity and activity are wanted. Ihe 
prospect for future employment is good. They work at all sea- 
sons. One fourth are Americans. No parts of our occupation are 
suitable for women but those in which they are engaged. 1 ' A 
sewing silk manufacturer in Paterson, N. J., writes : " Our wom- 
en are engaged in winding and doubling the raw silk and finish- 
ing, in skeins and on spools, the dyed material. The work is 
generally considered healthy. Many children, boys and girls, 
from ten years and upward, are employed — say forty per cent, of 



LACE MAKERS. 



211 



the whole force of help ; children at $1 per week — women at $3 
and $4. They work sixty-nine hours to the week. State rights 
prevent the shortening of the time. Each State makes its own 
laws on the subject, and no unanimity exists. Males and females 
are employed up to a certain age, say fifteen years, indiscrimi- 
nately ; girls always preferred. The time of learning depends 
upon the quickness of the hand ; some learn in two or three days, 
some again can scarcely learn at all. The rule of the trade is 
Hot to pay learners. It depends on circumstances whether we 
pay. In brisk times we have about sixty (including children) — 
women about forty — perhaps less. About half are Americans. 
Crinoline is in the way to prevent women from performing other 
parts of the labor. Women are cheaper. Men could not be got, 
and could scarcely do the work, if they could. Yet no particular 
qualifications are required. The prospect for an increase of this 
manufacture depends upon congressmen and the tariff. The best 
seasons are immediately after the New Year's and Fourth of July 
holidays." In France, some girls are employed to wind the raw 
silk from cocoons, and some spin it into skeins of silk. In Dublin, 
many women are employed in the winding and picking of silk 
used in making poplin. Near Algiers is an orphan asylum, from 
which a large number of girls have been apprenticed to a gentle- 
man who owns a silk winding mill in the vicinity. The girls 
work twelve hours a day. 



195. LaC8 Makers. Large numbers of women are 
employed in lace making in Belgium, France, Ireland, and Eng- 
land. A normal lace school was established in Dublin in 1817. 
Lace makers are very closely confined, and in busy times many 
spend from twelve to twenty hours at their work. Lace making 
requires care, quickness, and dexterity. Rev. Mr. Hanson 
mentions the fact that, in Liverpool, there are three Roman 
Catholic institutions aided by the Privy Council for the industri- 
al training of girls : one, attended by forty pupils, is a laundry ; 
another is a lace school, attended by one hundred and sixty-six ; 
the third, attended by twenty-six, trains domestic servants. 
Lace making is so injurious to the eyes that, at forty, very few 
can carry it on without spectacles. In England the process of 
winding is conducted by young women, while boys are mostly 
employed as lace threaders. Their condition is a wretched one. 
Women are mostly employed as lace runners or embroiderers. 
Mending, drawing, pearling, and joining are mostly done by young 
children. An interesting account of the business is given in 



212 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN, 

Charlotte Elizabeth's story of the " Lace Runners" : " It is proved 
by unquestionable evidence, that in lace making it is customary 
for children to work at the age of four or five and six years ; and 
instances are found in which a child, only two years old, was set to 
work by the side of its mother." The present condition of most of 
the laboring classes in England is far more depressing and exhaust- 
ing than the slavery that exists among the colored population of 
the United States. " The powers of production of a machine for 
making laces are to hand labor nearly as 30,000 to 5." C. 
says he and his wife are the only makers of hand lace in the 
United States, and he has been nine years in the business here. 
He says, making the figures is most difficult ; and he showed me 
one figure he asked but twenty-eight cents for, that he stated it 
would require a day and a half to make. I wish I had offered to 
buy it. He employs a number of girls to put the figures on 
some kind of a foundation for collars, sleeves, and capes. They 
also transfer, mend lace, and do other such work. He says, 
making figures does not pay as well as the other parts, and it 
would not pay for the salt you use on your potatoes. He does 
not have lace made, except now and then a figure that cannot be 
obtained, to fill out a piece that is being transferred or altered, 
and for which the lady is willing to pay a good price. He says 
laces are made so much cheaper in the old country, that when 
imported, paying even a duty of twenty or twenty-five per cent., 
they are sold as cheap as those he makes. He says he pays his 
girls nearly twice as much as they are paid in Europe. His 
report I thought contradictory, and supposed he feared com- 
petition. I was told by an English woman, who had been ac- 
customed to making lace from six years of age until the last 
ten, that it takes seven or eight years to learn lace making in 
all its parts. She says there are twenty-one processes gone 
through with in making every kind but pillow lace, in which 
there are but five processes. When she was a child, none but 
common laces were made in France, and the making of their finest 
laces they learned from the English, who went over to France. 

197. Lace Menders, I called on M. W., a lace mender. 
"In New York, she has received from one store, Mme. G.'s, from 
$20 to $25 a week for work. She thinks in a few years very 
little work will be ordered from the stores ; it will be done by 
those who make a business of it. The stores derive a handsome 
profit. She did a piece for one store for $3, that she knows the 
lady paid $5 for having done ; and another piece at $3, that the 
lady paid $10 for — the storekeeper having such profits for no- 
thing but merely sending it to the lace transferrer. She makes a 
comfortable living, but works at night as well as through the 



HAIR CLOTH MANUFACTURES. 213 

day. It has injured her eyes and made her nervous. She has 
had two little girls learning to mend, alter, and transfer lace ; 
one received her board and clothing for her work for three years. 
One girl, that spent two years with her, is now obtaining a liveli- 
hood by ber work. She thinks if a bright, steady girl of thir- 
teen should spend two years at it, and then have friends to start 
her in business, she would be well able to support herself. Lace 
mending is a separate branch from lace making. In England, if 
a person can obtain the names of one or two wealthy families, it 
will at once establish them in business. In doing up lace, little 
girls can put the pins in the edges to keep it in place until dried. 
C. and Mine. G., she says, pay her as her customers would, but 
she prefers establishing herself, and does not so well like store 
work. Her customers recommend her to their friends, and so 
she will gradually become known. Lace mending is a nice, clean, 
respectable business, and can be done at home." 



198. Hair Cloth Manufacture. " There is some com- 
petition in the sale of foreign and domestic hair cloth. The 
American is of a better quality, and on that ground only are 
manufacturers able to compete with foreigners, the duty on hair 
cloth being low. When the hair has been separated from the 
short hair used for curling, it goes into the more delicate fingers 
of the hair drawers, who sort it into lengths, each length corre- 
sponding to the width of the cloth to be woven. We have seldom 
seen any mechanical operation requiring more dexterity or con- 
stant attention than this. The girls engaged in this work make 
from $3 to $3.50, and sometimes $4 a week. The weaving is done 
by hand looms, each worked by two girls — one to handle the hook 
(answering the purpose of a shuttle), and the other to serve the 
hair. The prices paid for weaving vary from twenty to thirty- 
two cents per yard. The average, including plain and figured 
cloth, is twenty-four cents. A fair average day's work is four or 
five yards. But this requires two hands, you must remember ; so 
that perhaps a fair estimate of the wages of hair cloth weavers 
would be from fifty to sixty-two and a half cents per day. The 
labor is severe, and we should think it impossible, without injury 
to the health, for young women to work at it more than two thirds 
of the time." At a hair-cloth manufactory in New York, I was 
told they employ one hundred girls. The proprietor says they 
have work all the year. He never knew a woman at the business 
that could not find employment. The first month they do 
not receive anything for their work, but after that can earn from 
$3 to $5 per week. It is paid for by the yard. The more prac- 
tice a worker has, the better she succeeds. I think it must be 



214 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

dirty work. Another manufacturer told me it does not require 
long to learn to weave hair cloth, but some time to do it well. 
He pays $5 per week, but their time is not limited to ten hours. 
The girls, I saw, were pale and filthy. He thinks the business 
is likely to extend, and, consequently, the prospect of employment 
to women in that field of labor is good. He keeps his girls all 
the year. The Providence Hair Cloth Co. write : " Women are 
employed in weaving our hair cloth. Every hair has to be put 
in separately by the fingers of the girl. The only disadvantage 
to the health of the girl is the close application in sitting so long. 
We pay our girls thirteen cents per yard for weaving. It requires 
about two weeks or one month before a girl becomes sufficiently 
accustomed to the work to weave on full speed. We pay them 
while learning. No qualifications needed, only general neatness 
and upright moral character. All seasons are alike. We work 
only ten hours. Thirty girls have each one loom with which to 
work ; one girl mends the cloth, and three shave and trim the 
same — making thirty-four in all. One half are American. 
Women are in all respects superior to men in weaving — same as in 
cotton looms." 



METAL MANUFACTUBES. 

199. Iron. " The great heat to be endured and the severe 
muscular power required, preclude women from the manufacture 
of iron goods. They are not directly employed, and to a small 
extent indirectly. We think when women have to perform what 
is unquestionably man's work, it lowers the standard of female 
character instead of elevating, and nothing is more disagreeable 
than to be constantly employed at labor uncongenial to one's 
nature." From the United States census we learn that in 1850 
there were engaged in the manufacture of pig iron 20,298 males, 
150 females ; in. the manufacture of casting iron, 23,541 males, 
48 females; in the manufacture of wrought iron, 16,110 males, 
138 females. We do not know exactly how these women were 
employed. The work in rolling mills is very severe and the 
heat intense. The men have their limbs cased in tin sheaths 
above their knees. The vast capital required to develop the 
mineral resources of a country, and the comparative newness of 
our country, have hitherto prevented more than a partial devel- 



FILES — GUNS — HINGES. 215 

opment of its resources. Many women are employed in dressing 
and sorting ore in Great Britain. 

200. Files. The notches in files are made by a chisel acted 
on by a hammer held in the hand. The edge thrown up in making 
the notch assists the workman in putting the chisel in the right 
place, and keeping it there while he cuts the next notch. " It is 
peculiar that hitherto no machine has been constituted, capable 
of producing files which rival those cut by the human hand." 
From a manufacturer in Massachusetts, we learn that " he employs 
from four to six girls in cutting fine work files, cleaning, and 
wrapping up, &c. They are largely employed in England. The 
work is considered healthy. They receive from $3 to $4.50 per 
week of ten hours a day. Men and women are paid equal wages for 
the same kind of work. It requires from six months to two years to 
learn. The prospect for a small number in each factory is good. 
There is work every day in the year. It is quite a new business 
in this country. Women are neater and more particular with 
their work than men. They could do some other parts that are 
suitable for them, but they would soil their hands too much." 
A file manufacturer writes me : " Women are paid by the piece 
in cutlery — in other departments by the day ; when by the piece, 
they receive as much as men ; when by the day, one half. It 
would require three or four years to learn. Most women cannot 
cut any but small files as well as men, as they have not sufficient 
muscular power in the hands and fingers. Women are taught in 
Sheffield, England, by their fathers and brothers, and have what 
they earn. Good eyesight and stout nerves are the requisites 
for a learner. No prospect of employment in our business at 
present. The best localities for manufactures are where files 
are wanted, in New England and the middle States." 

201. GuilS. One manufacturer writes : " I hardly know 
whether the work could be done by women. It is difficult 
to learn and hard to practise." A gunsmith told me, guns 
could be polished by women. They are polished by hand. A 
manufacturer of guns writes : " I have no women employed in 
my factory. It is not common for them to work at this business 
in America, although many of them are employed by gun makers 
in foreign countries." 

202. Hinges. A manufacturer of hinges writes : " We 
employ no women in our manufactory. There are portions of the 
work that might be done by females as well as male labor. Still 
we have not adopted the plan." A manufacturer writes from 
New Britain, Connecticut : " We employ women in packing 
goods, and making brass hinges, and pay from thirty-eight to 
sixty-five cents per day of ten hours. We formerly paid women 



216 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

$1.50 per day. We now get the same amount clone by girls 
for sixty-five cents. We employ them because the work is light, 
and we can get it done at that price. The part done by women 
requires one month to learn. The prospect for this work in 
future is good. Spring and fall are the best seasons, but our 
hands are employed the year round. Other parts of the work 
could be done by women if they were willing, but the work is 
dirty. They are superior to men in the same branch, as they 
handle the work quicker, and are, as a general thing, more steady 
and reliable. The housework here is mostly clone by Irish girls, 
while American girls prefer working in shops, even at less wages. 
There are many other branches of our work that might be done 
by females, for which we pay men $1 and $1.25 per day ; but 
the work is rather dirty, and few here would do it, as they can 
have cleaner work, and we have never sought that kind of help 
on that account. 55 

203. Xiocks. " The Newark Lock Company " employ eight 
American girls in packing hardware. They are paid by the 
week, from S3 to $5, and average half the pay of men, who do 
more laborious work. Women spend six or eight months learn- 
ing. Activity and neatness are desirable qualities. Women ex- 
cel in both qualities. We expect to double our business in a 
year or two. The women work ten hours per day, and have 
steady employment. Two thirds of all the locks used in the 
United States are made in the five large lock manufactories of 
Connecticut. The best locality is near the great emporium, and 
on tide water, to save freight. Boar 1 $2.50." The secretary of 
the Eagle Lock Company writes : " We employ from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred men, and only twenty girls. Our work 
is not suitable for females, except to pack our locks in paper ready 
for market. They work by the piece, and can earn from $10 to 
$25 per month, according to how they employ themselves. They 
are mostly daughters of men employed by us, and board at home. 
They are all Yankee girls. We only work ten hours, unless 
business is driving." " Hardware manufacturers in Cromwell, 
Connecticut, pay eight women from 50 to 62J cents per day for 
packing. They work ten hours a day. The work can be learned 
in one month. The prospect of work in future is good. Board 
$1.62 per week." Manufacturers in N. Britain write : " We pay 
by the day from 50 to 60 cents, ten hours' work. Women are 
not generally better paid than they now are, because they com- 
pete with each other so much in the light, easy, and clean 
. branches of labor, and meet competition in light work from boys. 
Their time of learning is from six months to a year, and half 
never learn. They are paid while learning. An eye for putting 



NAILS — RIVETS — SCREWS. 217 

up work true to the square, and quick fingers, are the most essen- 
tial qualifications. The business is constantly increasing. Work 
is the same, or nearly so, at all seasons. Girls employed by us 
have every personal comfort and convenience that is possible, and 
are paid as much as men for the same labor. Most of our work 
is more or less greasy and dirty from iron and brass filings. 
Girls usually have less natural mechanical intelligence, we think. 
It may be, however, that the want is from their inexperience in 
mechanical branches. Our impressions are that New England 
is the place for manufacturing small wares, requiring great ac- 
tivity and industry. Our workers have the use of a public library 
and lectures free. Board, $7 to $8 per month— thirty to thirty-one 
days." A manufacturer of trunk castors, in Massachusetts, writes 
me that he once employed girls to paint castors, and put them in 
packages for the dealers. 

204. Nails. Making wrought nails is too hard work for 
women. A manufacturing company of nails, in Boston, write me 
there are no women employed in the nail factories of New Eng- 
land. The work is exceedingly heavy. Another manufacturing 
company write, they have never known of women being employ- 
ed in making nails in any country. But we know that in France, 
women are employed in turning the wheel in making nails, and 
at Sedgley, E., and the neighboring villages, the number of girls 
employed in nail making considerably exceeds that of the boys. 
In England, the part done by girls is attending machinery that 
splits iron into the proper widths for nails. 

205. Rivets. A manufacturer writes: "We believe no 
manufacturer employs women in our particular branch of indus- 
try. The business requires great strength and exposure to fur- 
naces. The writer suggests that in iron moulding, perhaps a 
new career might be opened for women. " Innumerable small 
castings are now being made, such as buckles, eyes, rings, &c, 
for harness making. As this work is exceedingly light, requiring 
skilful manipulation, it might be within the scope of women to 
undertake this branch of industry." The casting is dangerous. 
The mixture of gases in the hot metal sometimes produces a blow- 
ing — that is, the metal is thrown into the air, falling oftentimes 
on the workers, penetrating their clothes and burning them. A 
woman's clothes would be unsuitable for this work. The mould- 
ing is very light, easy work, and we think as suitable for women 
as most mechanical labor. 

206. Screws. The processes in making screws are for- 
ging, turning up, nicking, worming, and tipping. The cutting and 
polishing of screws, in Birmingham, are chiefly done by women. 
The machinery used requires care and delicacy. 

10* 



218 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

207. Skates. Skate manufacturers in Maine write : " We 
employ from ten to twelve ladies to stitch skate leathers, for about 
two months in the year, November and December. They are 
paid by the piece, and average 50 cents a day. All are Ameri- 
cans. Board, $1.50 per week. In the New England States, more 
American women are employed than foreigners, particularly in 
country towns." 

208. Shovels. A shovel manufacturer says he employs 
boys to clean the handles, by holding them as they run over 
emery belts. He pays the boys $3 a week. For varnishing the 
iron part of the shovel he pays 10 cents a dozen, and " yesterday a 
youth was able to do twenty-one dozen." This branch of work, 
we think, might be done by strong women. 

209. Wire Workers. I was told at a wire manufactory, 
New York, that women are never employed to draw wire. If it 
be true that wire drawers are a very rough, coarse set of men, it 
is well girls do not work in the establishments ; as the work is such, 
we presume, that all must be employed in the same apartments. 
The labor of drawing is such that the hands of the men become 
almost like iron. Mr. S., Philadelphia, employs a woman to 
weave fine wire. She learned it in her native country, Scotland. 
She also sews pieces of fine wire cloth together. She receives 
$5 a week, and seldom works ten hours a day. Most men and 
women engaged in wire work are English or Irish, who learned 
the trade in their own country. I was told it requires some years 
to attain excellence. Weaving requires considerable strength in 
both upper and lower limbs. Men wire workers are paid from 
$1.50 to 12.50 a day. Mr. C, New York, employs a number of 
women weavers and seamers. They are paid $4 a week. For- 
merly their girls would want a day to go to a picnic, to get 
ready for a party, or help their mothers at home. The steam 
would have to be stopped unless they could get hands to fill their 
places during the time, which was very difficult and often could 
not be done. For a while their women gave them so much trouble, 
they had to stop the machinery altogether. It caused him such 
annoyance that some of the female members of his family learned, 
and are now employed. He employs women to cover steel for 
hoop skirts, and pays $3 a week. A few women are employed 
at wire weaving in Cincinnati. The wiring and making of bird 
cages seems to me a field of industry open to female hands. 
They can be made in any place, and the work is light. Wire 
could be woven in fenders by women, I think. Mr. C, maker of 
patent rat traps, employed a number of girls to lace the wires. 
Some he paid by the week, some by the piece. They mostly 
earned $3 a week. A small girl could learn it in two weeks. I 



CATCDLESTCKS. 219 

saw a manufacturer of wire stands for cloaks, mantillas, &c. He 
employs a few ladies to dress them, paying 25 cents apiece. 
One of his hands is very expeditious and can cover six in a clay. 
Those that know nothing of the work, he employs in making 
skirts only, and of course make less. February, March, August 
September, and October are the busy months. There are only 
three places in New York where the work is done. A wire 
maker, in Lowell, writes : " I employed a girl four years ago in 
wire weaving, that gave unqualified satisfaction. She left, to ob- 
tain a college education. I paid by the piece when I employed 
her, and at the same rates as I paid men. She used to earn $1 
a day, and even did so while attending school ; but of course 
worked before and after school — probably seven or eight hours a 
day. Most of my work is too laborious for women ; but some 
wire workers that make meal sieves, corn parchers, &c, can, and 
I believe do, employ them to advantage, by reason of the price 
of labor being much less for women than men. This kind of 
business is limited. There are not more than one hundred and 
fifty men and women, probably, working at the business in New 
England. A maker of sieves, and wire goods in general, writes 
from Worcester, Massachusetts : " The business is quite healthy 
compared with needle work. I employ six women, who earn 
from $4 to $5 per week of ten hours a day. Men earn from 
$7.50 to $12. Some goods we manufacture will not justify us in 
paying women higher prices. (The women should not do it. 
They would then have to employ men and pay better prices, 
when women could come in and claim equal wages.) Our kind 
of work they learn in a few weeks. There will be no falling off, 
in future, of this work. Most girls like the work. Board, $2 
per week in families." A wire manufacturer in Belleville, New 
Jersey, writes: "We employ females in sewing aid winding 
wire. The employment is not unhealthy. We pay from $2.50 
to $4.50 per week. Learners receive 12.50 per week. Board, 
$2 to $2.50. Men in our establishment average $2 per day. I 
would say that in some branches of our business, women might 
take the place of men." 



Brass Manufacture. In some branches of the brass 
manufacture women are not at all employed — in a few others, 
they are. At a brass bell foundery, we were told the work is 
not healthy, and is too heavy for women. 

210. Candlesticks. A manufacturer of candlesticks in 
Vermont " employs from three to four women, because they are 
better adapted to the work than men. He pays by the piece, from 



220 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

$13 to $15 per month, and employs them the year round. Women 
are paid as well as men or boys at the same kind of work. It 
requires from three to five years to learn the business — from one to 
two years, that part done by women. Women are paid small 
wages while learning. It is a clean, comfortable business. 
There are no parts of our work suitable for women in which they 
they are not employed.' 7 

211. Hooks and Eyes. The agent of the Waterbury 
Hook and Eye Company says : " The hooks and eyes are given out 
to families to put on cards, for which they are paid by the gross. 
It pays poorly — probably not more for a child than 50 cents a 
week. The country and villages around supply plenty of girls 
for the factories. In good times the hands in the factories are 
kept employed all the year. We employ three females to pack 
our finished light work, which is as neat and healthy work as can 
be in any pleasant factory — pay is $3.50 to $-1.50 per week of 
sixty hours. No males are employed on similar work. Supply 
and demand regulate prices. Only a short time is required by 
a competent girl to learn to do our work properly ; and pay com- 
mences when they commence. Every good qualification which 
1 flesh is heir to ' is needed to make the right sort of help. 
Prospect for employing more females than heretofore is not 
flattering. Girls are preferable for any light, neat, tasty 
work. Ours are Americans, and I believe as comfortable and 
happy as people are likely to be on this sinful globe. I doubt 
if much of our other work can be done by females. A place 
nearest to a large market, where good air and water prevail and 
means of living are reasonable, is the most desirable place to 
locate a factory, ordinarily. Churches, schools, libraries, lectures, 
&c, afford ample means and opportunity for mental and moral 
culture, for those who work ten hours a day, and can board for 
$2 a week, and are free from any special cares or anxieties." 
N. S. & Co., North Britain, write: "We employ nine women 
to make paper boxes, and pack hooks and eyes. They earn from 
60 cents to $1 per day of ten hours, but are paid by the piece. 
The men earn from $1.15 to $3 per day; but their work is dif- 
ferent from the women's. The women learn their part in two or 
three weeks. Industry and self-respect are the most desirable 
qualities. The prospect for future employment is good. They 
work ail the year. Board, $2 per week." 

212. Lamps. Mr. J. " used to employ girls to cement the 
glass body on the marble stand, and the top of the body on the 
metal through which the wick passes. He also employed them 
in papering to send away. The prospect for workers is poor, 
because the business is limited. He paid his girls $3.50 a week. 



lamps — pms. 221 

No manufactories in the West or South." In 1860 the manu- 
facture of coal-oil lamps formed the principal business of sixteen 
companies, who employed 2,150 men and 400 women and boys." 
213. Pins. The pins made in the United States are not 
so high priced as English pins. They have not until lately 
been so well finished. In pin making in England, the drawing 
and cutting of the wire, the cutting of the heads from the coils, 
and the trimming are mostly performed by men ; the other opera- 
tions, by women and children. Sometimes, in trimming the pins, 
a man, his wife, and child work together. For pickling and 
trimming the pins the price usually paid is two cents a pound. A 
skilful and industrious worker can head 20,000 pins per day, for 
which in England they are paid about 30 cents of our money. 
Pin heading is very sedentary work, and children seven or eight 
years of age are often kept at it for twelve or thirteen hours, with 
merely time for hasty meals. Girls at Sedgley and Warrington 
begin as early as five years of age to work in the pin factories. 
It is said that at Wiltenhall they are treated with much cruelty, 
if at all refractory. In Sedgley more women are employed than 
men, and receive the same treatment. The secretary of the 
American Pin Company at Waterbury, Connecticut, writes : 
" Women are employed in tending machines, and in sticking 
and packing pins, and packing hooks and eyes, and making paper 
boxes. The work is not unhealthy. The lowest wages by the 
week is $3.25 while they are learning; afterward $3.50 and 
$3.75 per week, ten hours a day. Some work by the piece, and 
earn from $14 to $21 per month. The supply of woman's labor 
is equal to the demand, at the prices we pay. We work through 
the year, generally without stopping, ex-cept for the holidays. 
Our average number is fifty. Girls can do the work as well or 
better than boys, that could be hired at the same price. Most 
are Americans. They have their Sundays, holidays, and even- 
ings — also a public library and institute lectures at a very small 
cost — besides religious privileges afforded by six churches. 
Board, $1.50 to $2 per week." The Albany Company, at 
Cohoes, sends the following information : u Women, and girls 
not younger than twelve years of age, are employed in sticking, 
folding, wrapping, &c. The same work is done in England and 
Germany. Wages from $6 to $20 per month, working twelve 
hours a day. Those having had the most practice can usually 
do the work faster and better, consequently obtain higher wages. 
They receive pay while learning. The qualifications most desir- 
able are care, attention, and activity. The business is not likely 
to increase greatly, as the work is mostly done by machinery and 
the demand for the article is limited. We are busy at all seasons 



222 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

except in extremely hot or cold weather. The hands work 
twelve hours — by so doing they obtain higher wages. We have 
more applicants than we wish. We employ from twelve to 
fifteen, because they can do the work more readily than men. 
The work is light, and the condition of the women quite equal to 
that of women otherwise employed to obtain the necessities of 
life." The agent of the Howe Manufacturing Company, in Con- 
necticut, reports : " Our work is all done by the piece. The 
earnings of the workwomen vary according to their skill, dili- 
gence, and the number of hours spent at work. Average in April 
last, $11.09 — in four weeks. Highest earnings of one individual 
$22.09 (equal to $5.54 per week). Small girls earn from $1 to 
$1.50 per week, and work six or eight hours. Men and women 
do not perform the same kind of labor in our establishment. 
Why all persons are not paid equally for equal labor, I do not 
feel competent to explain. A knowledge of our work is soon 
acquired. Learners are paid for what they do. A good char- 
acter and reputation, honesty, fidelity, common mechanical 
ability, and diligence are desirable qualifications. We generally 
find the hands we want in our own immediate neighborhood. 
Our work is considered desirable, and much sought for. In all 
seasons the hands are equally employed, except dry seasons, when 
we are short of water to drive our machinery. Our stock hands 
generally stay with us till they get married or lay up so much 
money that they are able to get along with less labor, or become 
too old or infirm to work to advantage. Some have stayed with 
us over twenty years, many over ten years. The number of 
hours for work is discretionary. We seldom request industrious 
hands to work more hours than they choose. Our hands some- 
times work twelve or fourteen hours, at their pleasure. Small 
girls, of whom we employ but five or six, seldom work ten hours. 
The number of women and girls employed in our establishment 
heretofore has been variable, averaging perhaps thirty. We are 
using improved machinery, which has already reduced the num- 
ber, and will reduce it still more. Our work is peculiarly adapt- 
ed to female labor. Nearly all our hands are American born. 
In twenty-two years' business, we have seldom, if ever, had an 
adult woman employed who was unable to sign her name to the 
pay roll Our adult women have the churches and lyceum lec- 
tures, which I believe they generally attend. Their time for 
reading, for the most part, will be evenings and Sundays. Small 
girls can attend our district school free of cost." A manufac- 
turer, in Seymour, Connecticut, writes : " We pay from $3 to $4 
per week. We employ no men in sticking and packing, and, if 
we were not particular as to whom we employ, we could reduce 



RINGS — SCALES. 223 

the amount of our monthly pay roll a large per cent. It requires 
very little practice to learn the part of our business done by 
women, and in most cases we pay them full wages upon entering 
the mill. No special qualifications are needed. The kind of 
business we pursue will always be carried on, but of course can 
never become very common. No difference in the seasons, and 
the girls are never thrown out of employment. Under the 
present regulations they work eleven hours, and the time could 
not well be shortened, as that would tend to derange the other de- 
partments of our business. We have but ten employed at 
present, but in the course of a few days expect to have about 
twenty. They are employed because they are peculiarly quali- 
fied for the business, and on account of the lower rate of wages 
as compared with the labor of men. We employ women in all 
cases when the work is suitable for them. Women as employed 
by us are superior to men, being more expert and active. The 
New England States are doubtless the best locality for our 
business. The females employed by us are all intelligent and 
of good mental ability." 

214. Rings. The American Brass Ring Co. " employ 
twenty women at presses, in packing, &c. They are all foreign- 
ers. Board, $1.50 per week. The work is not unhealthy. Women 
are paid fifty cents a day of ten hours. Women are paid $2 a 
week for four weeks while learning. The prospect of future 
employment is no better than the business now offers." 

215. Scales. H. T., manufacturer of scales and weights, 
Philadelphia, Penn., writes : " We employ women in making 
metallic weights. The work is not unhealthy. They earn from 
$4 to 86 per week. No comparison in the price of labor. Women 
can make as much as men, if they are willing. It requires almost 
a lifetime to learn the business ; but the part the women work at 
requires but a day or two. We pay learners, No extraordinary 
qualifications are needed. A good prospect for increase of em- 
ployment. No difference in seasons. They work from four to 
ten hours. Women cannot be employed at our heaviest work, on 
account of the great physical strength required." I was told at 
F. & M.'s, New York, that the beams of the scales could be bur- 
nished by women. It is done with steel instruments. I suppose 
the pans could also be burnished by them. Burnishing the back 
of the plates could be done b}^ women also, but it is somewhat 
dirty work. Women would have to work in the room with the 
men, for while the foreman was employed, he would like to keep 
an eye on the employees. The work is rather heavy for women, 
but not more so than some in which they are engaged. 



224: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

216. Stair Reds. A manufacturer of plated stair rods 
told me a lie employs a woman to burnish the rods. She can 
make from $4= to $7 a week, not working more than ten hours a 
day, being paid from fifty cents to $1 a hundred. It is work 
hard on the chest, but he thinks not hard on the eyes. He had 
one lady who did it at home. In large establishments, rods are 
now burnished by machinery. The polishing of stair rods is very 
hard work, and requires strong, stout lads." Another stair-rod 
manufacturer told me " he has employed a boy to tie up stair 
rods, but would employ a girl and pay the same price, $1 per 
day." 



217. Steel Manufacture. No women are employed in 
the conversion of iron into steel in this or any other country. It 
is rough, heavy work. It requires great physical strength, and 
is unsuitable for a woman. No women are employed in the 
manufacture of axes in this country. It is rough, coarse work, 
and done by stout, strong men. In one of the largest cutlery es- 
tablishments in the United States they employ six hundred men, 
but no females ; except six, for wrapping up goods. In the finish- 
ing of metals there are three branches : turning, filing, and set- 
ting up. In turning, jagged particles of metal fly off, and often 
enter the eyes of the workers, doing them great injury. Goggles 
of magnetised iron might be used to prevent this. The magne- 
tized wash is used to prevent the filings from getting down the 
throats of grinders and polishers. For learning the two parts, 
turning and filing, four years of apprenticeship are served. The 
turning requires more skill than physical strength. It might be 
done by women that were willing to serve so long an apprentice- 
ship. 

218. Buckles. G. Brothers, of TVaterbury, employ six 
women in riveting and other light work on bell clasps. They 
write : " The girls earn from $3 to $5 per week, ten hours a day. 
The labor of women is paid twenty-five per cent, less than that 
of males, because they are not able to do as heavy work. It re- 
quires about three months to learn the part of males or females. 
Our branch of trade is not increasing. Spring and fall are the 
most busy seasons, but the women are not thrown out of employ- 
ment during the year. They are superior in light work. Board, 
$2 per week." A manufacturer in Attleboro' writes : " I employ 
from twelve to fifteen at packing, at light press work, &c. They 
are paid from four to six cents per hour. Women are not paid 
higher, because they are not worth more. I pay men from seven 
to twenty-five cents per hour. The time of learning depends on 



EDGE TOOLS. 225 

the ingenuity of the employed. They have steady work most of 
the time. They are full-blooded Yankees — have a good deal of 
fan when the boss is out, and work in a pleasant room. The labor 
is easy, and they are satisfied with the remuneration. (Perhaps 
because they can do no better !) A healthy climate, convenience 
to market and to places where the raw material is made, are ad- 
vantages. All New-England girls have the advantages of a good 
education in the common branches." A manufacturer in Mid- 
dletown, Conn., replies : " Girls are employed by me, springing 
in the tongues of buckles and packing them — also making paper 
boxes. They earn from forty cents to $1 per day, being paid by 
the piece. Their employment is not so heavy or laborious as 
that of males. It takes from six months to one year to earn full 
wages. Women will probably always be employed in these 
branches. Good box makers are always in demand. We em- 
ploy thirty — all Americans. The balance of my work is rather 
objectionable for women, unless it be foreign or second-class girls. 
Women are usually more neat than men. Either water or rail- 
road communication is desirable in seeking a localit}^. Board, 
about $2 per week. There was never so great a demand for 
female help in this part of the country as at the present time. 
They have started a shirt manufactory about nine miles from 
here, and are in want of girls ; but the greatest trouble there is to 
find boarding places at reasonable rates." The West Haven Co. 
report " the employment to be very healthy by giving exercise 
to the limbs. The pay is from seventy-five cents to $1.50 per 
day — average $1. Some learn the business in two days, some in 
two weeks. The hands are paid from the first, and are seventeen 
in number, all Americans. Women are superior in this branch, 
because the}' are quicker with their fingers." 

219. Edge Tools. The Humphrey sville Edge Tool Man- 
ufacturing Co. inform me they do not employ females. For 
polishing they hire strong, rough boys, that they can get cheap, 
who stand while at work, and stoop over the articles, which pro- 
duces a strain on the back and compression of the chest. Many 
find it so injurious they have to give it up, and the majority of 
those who do keep at it do not last long. The majority of the 
metal workers in Birmingham do their work at home. Each 
member of the family has his particular part to perform. An 
English writer says : " In various branches of the hardware man- 
ufacture, both in Birmingham and Sheffield, women may be seen 
by hundreds in some places, comfortably secluded from the male 
workers; in others, working side by side with them at the same 
mechanical process. They are never given to itnoxication, and 
rarely, if ever, to strikes ; and it may be very much the absence 
10* 



226 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

of these propensities that has recommended them so largely to 
the notice of the employer. In London the practice is gaining 
ground." 

220. Electrical Machines. From the office of Davis 
& Kidder's magneto-electric machines we receive the following 
intelligence : " We employ women in covering wire, spools, sew- 
ing velvet, papering boxes, &c, &c. They earn from $1 , to $24 
per month, and are paid by the month. Women are paid nearly 
one half as much as men — can form no reason why women are 
not as well paid. It requires about three months for females to 
learn ; they are paid while learning. All it requires is energy. 
There is no prospect at all for future employment in this branch. 
We employ our hands through the year ; do not deduct from 
their wages when absent for a week. They work ten hours a 
day. We employ four, because the work is light and better suited 
for them than males. All Americans. Those in my employ are 
well educated. Board in respectable families, $2.50." C. 
Brothers, of New York, employ two girls for the same kind of 
work. They pay one $5 a week, ten hours a day — the small 
girl $3. They have had them but six months, but expect to 
keep them all the year. Mr. C. thinks the business is so limited 
that the prospect is poor for learners. 

221. Fir€* Arms. From the Arms Manufacturing Co., 
Chicopee, Mass., we receive the following information: "We 
employ women in burnishing plated ware. The employment is 
not unhealthy. We pay generally by the piece. Some are paid 
about eighty cents per day. There is a prospect for steady em- 
ployment for the few we have, and for no more. They are in no 
season entirely out of work. Ten hours a day are devoted to 
work when paid for by the week. All Americans. Easy work 
and much sought after. Women are inferior in point of strength, 
superior in cheapness." Sharp's Bine Co. write : " We employ 
from ten to thirty women in making cartridges and inspecting 
primers. We pay about $1 each day, as the business requires 
good skill and care, and is hazardous. It is generally piece work. 
Males do the heaviest part of the work, and are paid $1.25 to $1.50 
per day. If an individual is skilful, it requires but a short time 
to learn. Hands are paid while learning. Prospect good of 
future employment. We have constant work for ten. They are 
usually employed nine hours. All Americans. They appear 
very comfortable, and are quite tidy. No other parts of our 
occupation are suitable for women. Women are superior in 
forming and folding. $2.50 per week is the price of board." 

222. Knives and Forks. The metals used for knives 
and forks are iron, steel, and silver, according to use or expense. 



KNIVES AND FORKS NEEDLES. 227 

The dust that arises from the grinding of steel knives, coats the 
lungs with stone. A German manufacturer of small cutlery told 
me that in large establishments in some European countries, 
women put the rivets in the handles of knives, and polish the 
handles of ivory and pearl. In the grinding of penknives and 
razors the inclination of the body forward is greater than in any 
other branch ; hence, while less injurious in regard to the amount 
of dust than the fork and needle branches, they are fraught with 
greater evil from the position of the body alone. Articles of 
cutlery are glossed by holding them to a wooden wheel, on which 
is emery powder. They are polished by holding them to a wheel 
covered with leather, charged with crocus. Both of these pro- 
cesses are within the range of woman's toil. In a cutlery estab- 
lishment, I was told the work was too hard for women. The 
polishing of their cutlery is done by machinery. The Hardware 
Manufacturing Company, Berlin, Conn., write : " We employ 
one hundred and forty men, making shelf hardware, and five or 
six girls to pack it up. They get from fifty to seventy-five cents 
a day, work ten hours, and all live at home. The work of papering 
up the goods is light, and requires little skill. The other part 
of the work about our factory is too severe for women." The Em- 
pire Knife Company, Conn., " employ four girls in packing and 
sharpening. They are paid by the day (ten hours), and earn from 
$3 to $4 per week. Women receive about the wages of men. It 
requires from six months to one year to learn. Women are paid 
while learning. The prospect of future employment is fair. The 
comparative comfort and remuneration of the work are good. 
Comfortable board, $3 a week." A company in Northfield, Conn., 
inform us : " It requires from three to five years to learn the 
men's part of the work. Some of the women work by the piece, 
and some by the day, receiving from $3 to $5 per week. The 
same price would be paid to men. The prospect of future em- 
ployment is good. They work throughout the year. Women 
are superior in quickness. A locality should be fixed on where 
good water power may be had." 

223. Needles. Most of the needles used in Europe and 
America are manufactured at Bedditch, fourteen miles from 
Birmingham, where there are about a dozen very large factories. 
The number manufactured in Bedditch amounts to about seventy 
million per week. Tbe process is a very long and painful one. 
The drilling is done by young women. The constrained posture 
and rigid gaze of the women on the eyes of the needles as they 
drill, is distressing. It requires a perfect steadiness of hand. 
In addition to this, the small channel observed on each side of 



228 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

the eye is made by women with a suitable file. The picking out 
of defective needles, and laying perfect ones with the heads one 
way and the points another, is performed by children. Dr. Gr. 
C. Holland writes : " We candidly admit that the physical evils 
produced by needle grinding exceed all that imagination has 
pictured." The needle grinders in England are said to be igno- 
rant and dissipated. One half can neither read nor write. The 
dust which is evolved in the process of needle grinding, contains 
a much larger amount of steel than is produced by any other 
grinding. Mr. Aiken, inventor of the knitting machine, has the 
machines and needles both manufactured. He says " he sup- 
poses he • could teach women to do most of the work on needles, 
if he would give the time and trouble. He pays $1 per day to 
hands in the needle room." In the manufacture of Bartlett's 
sewing-machine needles, but a few small girls are employed, at 
from $1 to $1.50 per week, for smoothing the eye by running an 
oiled thread through it. Formerly they employed girls to per- 
forate the eye, but it is now done by machinery. A manufacturer 
of knitting needles writes us : " The winter season is the best for 
work, and the Eastern States furnish the best localities for 
manufactories." A maker of sewing-machine needles told me 
the tools are rather heavy, files and a lathe being used. They 
pay a boy of fourteen years' $3 a week, and one of eighteen, $5.50. 
C. employs girls to envelop and label needles. They earn from 
$3 to $4 a week, and do it at home. It takes a long time to be- 
come expert. They are paid from the first, but not much. The 
business is limited. They could have it done for less in England, 
but prefer to put labels on for parties in this country, who want 
to be considered manufacturers. G. & B. employ some girls to 
label and paper needles they import. They pay two cents and a 
half for putting the labels on forty papers. The labelling is done 
in the latter part of winter and early spring. 

224. Pens (Steel and Quill). A thousand million steel 
pens are said to be produced annually at Birmingham, England. 
We are indebted to some writer in an English paper for a de- 
scription of the part taken by women in the manufacture of 
Griilott's pen in Birmingham. The number of women employed 
in his factory is four hundred. " If not altogether manufactured 
by woman, she has had, by far, more to do in its manufacture 
than men. He may have forged and rolled the metal, but she 
cut it from the sheet, gave it its semi-cylindrical form, stamped 
it, ground it on a wheel to make it flexible, split it, helped to 
polish it, and finally packed it in a box, or sewed it upon a card 
in readiness for the market. And whoever wishes to see her 



1 



PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 229 

thus employed, may find her seated in an airy and comfortable 
chamber, with two hundred or three hundred companions similarly 
engaged — all healthy and merry, and singing at their work, while 
pens in all stages are clicking and glittering through their fingers 
at the rate of something like one hundred gross a day, each." An 
attempt has been made to manufacture steel pens in this country, 
but, I think, as yet without success. The makers of the Wash- 
ington medallion pen had some girls to come from England to 
work for them, but found they could not keep up the factory, be- 
cause of the prices they had to pay for labor. The duty on steel 
pens is thirty per cent., yet they can be imported for less than it 
would cost to make them here. Some one writes to the editor 
of the Englishwoman's Journal as follows : " Madam, I have 
been told that quill pens made by hand are far superior to those 
made by machinery, and are therefore used in some of the prin- 
cipal offices of London. Besides which, very many persons are 
unable to write except with quill pens ; rejecting the best and 
most expensive ones made of any kind of metal. Might not the 
making of them be a suitable occupation for some young women, 
who, from lameness or other infirmities, might be unable to follow 
a more active life ?" In New York, some quills are made 
into pens by machinery, but women, we believe, are not em- 
ployed. 

225. Philosophical Apparatus. K., in Brooklyn, told 
me that in the old country it is customary to spend seven years 
learning to make philosophical apparatus, but in this country 
boys do not like to be apprenticed so long. The business is not 
fast enough for Americans. It requires close and constant ap- 
plication. The burnishing is quite hard work. The occupation 
has a tendency to render one intellectual and scientific. Most 
young men leave it to become physicians and preachers. Dr. 
McG., of China, is one of the number. The work is mostly done 
by lathe, but the polishing by hand. I think women could do 
it, if they were brought up to it. Instruments are made in 
Europe, and imported for less than they could be made in the 
United States. Business is now very slack. K. used to have 
several apprentices, that he boarded and paid $1 a week during 
the first year. The next year he increased their wages to $1 a 
week more, the next year another $1, &c. In small establish- 
ments an instrument is carried through all its processes by the 
same workman. The business is done in the United States on so 
small a scale as not to afford a sufficient subdivision to furnish 
any part suitable for women. P. does not know of any women 
being employed in this country in this trade. He thinks there 



230 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

is much of it they could do, and in process of time it will be done 
in the United States. In France and England, there are many 
women who learn with their fathers and husbands, and work with 
them. Many women are employed in making small compasses, 
that require a nice adjustment and care in pasting, but a separate 
room would be necessary, and that he has not. A manufacturer 
of nautical instruments writes me, he does not know of women 
being employed in any part of his business in any portion of the 
world. The brass on philosophical instruments is polished by 
hand, but a manufacturer told me he would not have even the 
polishing done by inexperienced hands, as they are very particular 
with the finishing off of their work. 

226. Saws. A saw maker says, in England women are 
employed in lacquering the handles and polishing the blades of 
saws. An Englishman, who did a very extensive business in New 
York, employed girls in the same way, but he failed in business, 
and none have been employed since. W. pays boys for such 
work $2.50 a week. Another informant writes me that in Eng- 
land women are employed in the saw manufactories. 

227. Scissors. In France, women are employed in the 
manufacture of cutlery. The blades of scissors are polished by 
women on lathes supplied with emery powder and oil, and subse- 
quently on lathes supplied with crocus. 

228. Spectacles. S. says there are women in England 
and France who make spectacle frames for them. He employs 
a woman to grind the glasses of spectacles. She can earn $15 a 
week, and has earned $23 a week by taking work home with her 
to do at night. On Nassau street, I saw a French lady who grinds 
glasses for spectacles on a lathe. She works from nine to five 
o'clock, and earns about $9 a week. There is not the danger 
some might apprehend of glass flying into the eyes while at work. 
Yet it requires great care and skill. I called at a manufactory 
of silver-plated spectacles and saw the whole process. Several 
parts are done by women. One was shaping the frames for the 
eyes, another setting them up, another preparing them to solder, 
another soldering, and three ethers were scouring. The soldering 
must be uncomfortable in warm weather. The employment, I 
suppose, is not more unhealthy than any other of a mechanical 
nature. One girl told me she earned seventy- five cents per day. 
They are paid by the quantity. She said the rest could earn as 
much, if they were industrious. One considerably older, at an- 
other branch, said she could earn $4 a week. It would not re- 
quire more than a few weeks, I think, to learn any branch pursued 
by women — to learn all the parts performed by women, would 



SPECTACLES. 231 

require six months or more, even for an apt and skilful pupil. A 
spectacle maker, J., said a smart person could learn to make silver 
spectacles in a year, but it would require something longer to 
learn to make gold ones, as gold is a more difficult metal to melt 
and work than silver. An apprentice is not paid the first year, 
because of the metal he wastes. To learn it, one should at first 
look on and see how the work is done. A manufacturer of spec- 
tacles writes : " Women might make and repair spectacles. The 
heavier parts of the business require foot lathes to be worked, 
where skirts would be out of place, but the most could be done by 
hand in making spectacles." (We have seen several women at 
foot lathes, polishing watch cases — so the use of foot lathes need 
not be an objection with women.) A spectacle importer writes : 
" We use a great many spectacle glasses, and in their manufacture 
in England females are generally employed. In France and Ger- 
many the women do the same kind of work." P., in Meriden, 
Conn., writes : " We employ women in making spectacles. The 
work is not more unhealthy than any other labor in shops. Most 
are paid by the piece — those who work by the week usually re- 
ceive $4, and work ten hours a day. They receive about three 
fourths the price of male labor, because they perform the lighter 
work. They earn their board in one week — get good wages in 
eight. They usually do about the same amount of work through 
the year. We employ about fifty, because they are more active 
on light work, and can be had for less wages. Most are Ameri- 
cans. Girls prefer this to housework, and make better wages. 
The nearer New York, the lower are freights; the farther from 
New York, the more permanent our help. Good sense and reli- 
gious principle prevail among them. Those who board pay $2.25 
per week." A manufacturer in Brooklyn, of fine gilt, silver, 
plated, and German silver spectacles, writes : " The employment 
is healthy. Young girls earn $2 per week, older ones from $3 to 
$6. They are generally paid by the piece. Girls and boys earn 
about the same wages, but those who have spent years to acquire 
the trade are entitled to better prices. A smart girl or boy will 
learn in the course of six months to do a specific part. Wages 
are usually paid from the time they commence. A fair share of 
common sense and willingness to labor are the principal requisites. 
As long as people grow old, and need spectacles, they will be 
manufactured. Our work continues about the same through the 
season. They work ten hours a day. In burnishing, the demand 
is pretty good- We employ ten women, because they can do the 
parts of work required better than boys or men. Half are Ameri- 
can. We find women rather more ready and apt than men. It 
is advantageous to be in or near the great markets. Board, $2." 



232 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

I was told Tby an English maker of spectacle frames, that most 
spectacles are made in France and Germany. Men and women 
are paid in England 37-^ cents a dozen for grinding the best 
quality of glasses. The makers of frames should know how to 
make figures, to put them on the frames. Women would be most 
likely to find employment as grinders of glasses in New York, and 
no doubt a small number could get work of that kind. Gold and 
silver frames are polished on a lathe with leather and rouge. Com- 
mon frames are burnished with agate and steel. It is done more 
quickly, and is cheaper than polishing. Most spectacle frames of 
a common quality are made in the country, because it can be done 
by water power, and more cheaply. 

229. Surgical Instruments. T., manufacturer, told me 
that some steel surgical instruments are burnished by hand. He 
thinks there is not enough in that line of business to do, to justify 
women in learning. He said the polishing of surgical instru- 
ments could be done by women. It requires judgment and ex- 
perience, but is simple, requiring the worker merely to hold the 
instrument on lathes and turn every few seconds ; but burnishing 
requires more strength. I was told that perhaps women are em- 
ployed in polishing silver surgical instruments. 

230. Telescopes. G., an optician, says much of the light 
work in making telescopes might be done by women. They could 
French-polish the wooden frames, lacquer the brass work, and 
grind the glasses, if properly instructed. He thinks making 
microscopes is more suitable for them. 

231. Thermometers. The construction of the ther- 
mometer is quite simple. Women, if taught, could put the parts 
together, and mark the scales. I have been told that some girls 
are employed in Rochester, New York, in marking the scales. 
The same remarks will apply to the barometer. 



232. Copper and Zinc Manufacture. So far as we 

can learn, no women are employed in copper and zinc mines, or 
in the making of copperas. Twenty-five women are employed in 
packing copper powder flasks, by the Waterbury Manufacturing 
Company, and making percussion caps. One fourth of them are 
American. They earn from $3 to $4 per week, and the work is 
reported not unhealthy. The women are paid about one half as 
much as men. It does not require long to learn, and learners 
are paid something daring their apprenticeship. Ten hours are 
devoted to work. All seasons are alike, The agent says the 



TIN MANUFACTURE LANTERNS. 233 

women do better .for light work than men, but require more 
watching. 



233. Tin Manufacture. A youth, that was working in 
a tin slioj3 for a widow, whose husband had been a tinner, told me 
that a female relative of his, who lived about one hundred years 
ago in Ireland, could do ail the various parts of work as well as 
a man. She learned the trade regularly. Women are paid 
nearly as well as men for such labor in the old countries, but 
cannot work so fast. He says, even now in Europe a few women 
learn the trade of a tinner. It requires four years to learn it 
thoroughly in all its branches, because there is such a variety. 
One or two branches may be learned perfectly in a short time ; 
so may several be learned indifferently in the same period ; just 
as a violinist may know how to play a few tunes very well, but 
cannot play any others ; or may know how to play a great many 
indifferently, but none perfectly. In England, where women are 
employed in tin shops to solder, they receive for this work their 
board and thirty-seven cents a day. 

234. Lanterns. I visited a large tin establishment in 
Brooklyn, and saw the girls at work ; some soldering the corners 
of the lanterns, some assorting the pieces, some putting glass in 
the sides, some fastening conductors' lamps in the framework, 
with plaster of Paris, and some enveloping them to send away. 
There is nothing unhealthy in the work. The smoke of the 
charcoal stoves used in soldering is carried off by pipes. Girls 
putting glass in the tin frames, sometimes get their fingers cut. 
The girls all wear aprons. The plaster of Paris part of the work 
is very dirty. The girls earn from $2.50 to 14.50. They are 
all employed at first in papering, as it is termed — that is, putting 
the articles in papers ready to be packed ; and receive, for a few 
weeks, $2.50 a week, then more, according to ability and industry. 
Some are paid by the week and some by the piece ; they work ten 
hours. Girls prefer mechanical labor to domestic service, because 
they have the evenings to themselves. It requires but a few 
weeks for a ^irl of ordinary abilities to learn the part she is to 
perform. The proprietor said he could have a hundred times as 
many girls as he has, if he had employment for them. But few 
American women will work in factories with men. Most women 
arer neater with their work than men. At a lantern manufactory 
in New York, I was told they employ eight or ten girls to cement 
the metal parts on the glass, to varnish, to wash and wipe and 
paper them. They are paid $3.50 a week. 



234 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

235. Britannia Ware- Some Britannia is burnished by 
hand, and some by lathe. Women occasionally do the first 
kind. 



236. Silver. " The artisan who forms certain articles of 
gold and silver is called, indifferently, a goldsmith or silversmith. 
The former denomination is most commonly employed in Eng- 
land, and the latter in the United States." A manufacturer of 
silver ware in Providence, Ehode Island, writes : " We do not 
employ women, and for the same reason that females are not em- 
ployed in machine shops." Chinese women do filagree work. A 
lady told me she had seen it clone in a factory near Paris, by 
women. 

237. Burnishers. At M.'s, Philadelphia, they employ 
from thirty to fifty women on plated ware ; would employ more 
if they had room for them to work. They spend three months 
learning, and receive no wages during that time. They then 
earn from $3 to $6 per week, according to skill and industry. 
They work by the piece. Another set of women are employed 
in scouring the ware. It is wet, dirty work, and the women 
receive somewhat higher wages. The burnishers work in a light, 
comfortable room. The scourers work in a cellar. The business 
of burnishing is not hard on the eyes; nor would it be on the 
chest, M. thinks, if the burnishers sat upright, which they could 
do if they chose. We were told by some one else, that the de- 
mand for laborers in that field is very limited in Philadelphia. 
I was told by a silversmith in New York, that a good burnisher 
can earn from $5 to $7 a week, and he thought it took about a 
year to learn to become a good worker. Burnishing is a laborious 
and perfectly mechanical process. With some, the stooping pos- 
ture is found trying to the breast, and constantly poring over 
the bright surface is injurious to the eyes. The business is poorly 
paid, and a silversmith can employ but a very small number of 
burnishers, but manufacturers of plated ware employ more. F. 
employs two girls for burnishing silver ware, who can earn from 
$5 to $9 per week. It is piece work, and does not require long 
to learn, C. L. pays burnishers from 13 to |6 a week. At a 
manufactory of silver service for Roman Catholic churches, I was 
told they are most busy just before Christmas and Easter. They 
pay by the week, because it is less trouble, and to them cheapest, 
as many of the articles they make are small. They pay from 
$2 to $5 a week. Y., in New York, who employs a number in 
burnishing silver ware, told me he pays learners nothing for a 
month, then by the piece. A good burnisher could earn from $5 



BURNISHERS. 235 

to $7 a week. The prices are better than are generally paid to 
women for mechanical work. A lady burnisher told me she likes 
the work because it can be done at home. She thinks the work 
not injurious to the eyes. To learners she pays nothing for two 
months, then SI a week, and so increases as the learner advances. 
At the end of a year, the learner is considered proficient. Silver 
platers mostly employ their operatives in factories. Silver ware 
requires more taste and neatness than plated ware, and pays bet- 
ter. It is like vest making. One that can make good ones, gets 
a good compensation ; but those who slight their work are paid 
proportionately. A good burnisher can earn $6 and upward. 

Mrs. thinks after a while there will be manufactories of 

plated ware in the South and West. I saw a man making silver 
and brass faucets. The burnishing is first done with steel, then 
with agate. It requires some strength, but a woman of muscular 
force could do it. The majority of burnishers work upon plated 
ware, as less silver is used since plated ware has been brought to 
its present state of perfection. M. pays by the piece. A woman 
receives from $4 to $7 per week, according to competency and 
industry. It requires from two to four months to learn. The 
large cities, or places where the goods are manufactured, are the 
best for burnishers. The work soils clothes, so girls generally 
change their dresses or wear large aprons. Spring and fall are 
busy seasons. Hollow ware is generally burnished by men, as it 
requires more strength. At H.'s, I saw a few women scouring 
the ware with sand, and nineteen burnishing. They earn from 
$3 to $6 a week. A man in B., that does hand plating, employs 
girls to burnish, and pays them by the piece. They can earn 
from 75 cents to $1.50 per day ; they work at home. In New 
York there are some ladies who teach burnishing, and at some 
establishments a premium is paid for learning. In some large 
factories, girls are paid by the week from $3 to $5. C. pays by 
the piece, and from the first, but a girl cannot earrr more than $1 
a week for two or three months. It requires from four to six 
months to become a burnisher. The prospect for learners is 
good, because girls will get married, and so leave vacancies. The 
business is increasing. Good burnishers earn from $4 to $12 a 
week. He employed a girl to stay in his office and burnish, pay- 
ing her according to what she did, from $1 to $1.25 a day. 
Women, he remarked, receive the same price for burnishing that 
men do. (He may pay them so, but I know all do not.) About 
the holidays are the most busy times. There are not two months 
in the year a good burnisher cannot get employment. Merchants 
are slack longer than manufacturers. C. is a practical plater, 
and not so much at the mercy of his employes as those that are 



236 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

not. His burnishers begin on knives and forks, as they aie most 
simple. A burnisher told me it is not customary to pay a learner 
during the first two mouths. Most burnishers wear a shield. 
He thinks it is not bad on the eyes unless done at night. A 
northern light is best for judging of the work, just as a northern 
light is best for seeing the imperfections of a paintiug. About 
four months of the year, January, February, July, and August, 
burnishers find it difficult to get work, except in very large estab- 
lishments, where they are kept busy all the time. A man work- 
ing at coach lamps told me girls used to be employed in the fac- 
tory to burnish plates, and received $3 per week. The Porter 
Britannia and Plate Co., Conn., "employ women in burnishing, 
washing and packing. They earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men 
and women have the same price for their work, but men earn 
from 50 to 75 per cent, more, because they accomplish more. 
Men and women spend three months learning. Women could 
not endure more than ten hours such work. The supply rather 
exceeds the demand generally. On many accounts, women are 
preferable. They are superior in care and nicety of execution. 
The labor is too exhausting for tropical climates. There are 
some parts of the occupation suitable for women in which they 
are not now employed." Information from three other establish- 
ments corresponds with that given. Silversmiths in New Orleans 
write me, February, 1861 : " Women are much employed in 
Europe as well as in this country, burnishing silver ware. It is 
not in the least unhealthy. Most are paid by the piece, and here 
some receive as high as $50 a month. For silver burnishing, 
women are paid the same as men. The time of learning depends 
greatly upon capacity — usually about six months. There is a 
very slight prospect, at present, of employment. The best season 
for work is winter; there is none in the summer. In the higher 
branches of such work, women acquire superior skill." 

288. Thimbles. P. was kind enough to make an entire 
silver thimble, that I might see the process. The whole of the 
work could be done by women, but no women in any country are 
employed at it, so far as he knows. I was told by one or two 
other thimble makers, that no women are ever employed in that 
branch of business. It is usual for a boy to serve an apprentice- 
ship of four years. While doing some parts of the labor the 
workers sit, and while doing other parts they stand. The pol- 
ishing is done on a lathe, and there is not enough of it to furnish 
work for a separate person, except in very large establishments, 
and even then it is so connected with the other processes that it 
could not be well divided. There are not so many thimbles sold 
now as formerly, because of the sewing machines that are used. 



GOLD AND JEWELRY MANUFACTURES 237 

There are not more than from eight to twelve thimble makers in 
the United States. There are none South or West of Philadel- 
phia. 



239. Silver Plating. Women cannot well do the close 
or hand plating. It is done by soldering and ironing. Door 
plates are made in this way. Electro-plating is done with a bat- 
tery. The business' includes a variety of work, and requires 
some knowledge of chemicals, but could be learned by an intel- 
ligent person in a short time. The Americans are noted for ex- 
cellence in this department. H. knew a lady plater in Connec- 
ticut, and a very good one she was. I have been told women are 
employed in silvering metals in France. 



240. Bronze. Some statuettes are made of the finer met- 
als, gold and. silver, while busts are made of other simple metals, 
as copper, iron, zinc, lead, &c. They are generally made, how- 
ever, of the mixed metals. It requires some years' experience to 
make bronze statuettes. Women are employed in France, in 
ornamental bronze work. Mile, de Faveau has succeeded in 
having a bronze statue of St. Michael cast entirely whole, instead 
of in portions. It is the resuscitation of a lost art. 



241. Gold and Jewelry Manufactures. Those 
that manufacture jewelry in the United States form a small body. 
The articles sold by different houses vary as much in price and 
quality as any other kind of goods. Jewellers often have con- 
nected with their business persons who work in ivory, jet, hair, 
and such materials. " Felicie de Faveau, as a worker in jewels, 
bronze, gold, and silver, as a designer of monuments and mediaeval 
furniture, stands without approach." Much common jewelry is 
made in Rhode Island, and women are employed to some extent 
in its manufacture. The New England Jewelry Company in 
Providence employ women to solder, and pay $4 a week, ten 
hours a day. It does not take long to learn. They have work 
usually all the year. In the Eastern manufactories, women suffer 
some from dust, on account of their working in the same rooms 
where the men are employed at the machinery. In the manufac- 
ture of jewelry, the fumes of ^charcoal are usually permitted to 
fill the workshop ; and the fusion of saltpetre, alum, and salt, used 
in dry coloring, induces general nervousness and pain in the head 
and chest. This has been to some extent remedied, by having 



238 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

pipes that carry off the fumes partially, or it may be, in whole. 
There are many departments in the jewelry line that might be suc- 
cessfully filled by women : the sale of jewelry is one. It requires 
several years for one to become well acquainted with the jewelry 
business, and that is longer than many women are willing to 
spend in fitting themselves for busineess. Mr. B. said : " One to 
set jewels should be able to mount them. But few people make 
setting a separate business. When he learned, a woman was not 
at all employed by jewellers in this country. He pays some of 
his workers $10 a week, ten hours a day." A jewelry manufac- 
turer in Pawtucket, Bhode Island, writes : " Women are em- 
ployed in the manufacture of jewelry — also in casing and packing 
the same for market. The work is not more injurious than 
weaving or sewing. They are paid about the same as men. 
Some pay by the piece, some by the hour. Women are not paid 
as well as men, because they cannot do all parts. The time of 
learning depends upon their ingenuity. Some may learn in one 
week, others in four. They are paid while learning. Women 
are employed in the lighter branches because they are quicker. 
The advantage of a locality is in having natural water power, in 
a community where there is plenty of capital, and the capitalists 
are willing to invest in the business." Some manufacturing 
jewellers told me " they pay from $3 to $8 per week to their 
women. They work ten hours a day. The time of learning is 
six months, but, as in every thing else, much depends on the 
capacity, aptitude, and particular genius of the learner. More 
women could be employed in this business, if properly qualified. 
All their women are Germans. New York is the best place for 
selling jewelry, but other places are as good for manufacturing." 

242. Gold Assayers. Assaying by acids and other re- 
agents could be done by women. Tests are now imported, but 
most assayers prefer to make their own tests. Assaying requires 
patience, a knowledge of metals, and endurance of heat. It also 
requires instruction and considerable experience. Some assayers 
move from place to place wherever new mines are discovered, 
and reap the benefit of their skill and knowledge. A gold re- 
finer informs me " ^hat his business is mostly heavy fire work, 
requiring the most able men. None of it is sufficiently light for 
females." I find, however, that women are reported in the census 
of Great Britain as gold and silver refiners, cutters, and 
workers, 

243. Enamellers. The experience, taste, delicacy of 
touch, and fineness of finish required, make the art of enamelling 
one very suitable for women. The richness of coloring and ex- 
quisite workmanship render some specimens very beautiful. 



GOLD AND SILVER LEAF. 239 

Simple metals are mostly used as a base. I saw a man enamel- 
ling jewelry, who told me he employs small girls to enamel, pay- 
ing from $2 to S3 a week. It requires but two weeks to learn. 
I saw some jewelry that had been enamelled in Germany by women. 
In France, women are employed as enamellers, at from 8 to 16 
cents a day. " Gold of the standard quality is the best metal to 
enamel on, as it imparts something of its own glow to the ground, 
and assists materially the richness and delicacy of the coloring, 
particularly in the flesh tints. Copper gives a cold greenish hue 
to the enamel ground, but it is more commonly used than gold 
on account of its cheapness. For large enamels it is necessary to 
use copper, as they require a heat which would melt plates of 
gold." A highly polished enamel is passed through the fire a 
number of times in the process of painting ; otherwise it would be 
impossible to imitate any great delicacy of tint — as the colors 
are considerably changed by burning. •* As the plates are every 
time subjected to a high red heat, it is obvious that enamels must 
be the most durable of all kinds of paintings." At an enamel 
factory for lining metal vessels with a porcelain coating, I saw a 
woman who has been employed for four years to mix enamel in 
the consistency of buckwheat dough, and pour it into vessels to 
form an enamel lining. The articles are then baked in a furnace 
that the enamel may harden. She stands while employed. She 
goes at half past seven in the morning, has half an hour at noon, 
and returns and works until four, for which she is paid $4 a week. 
She has a sister-in-law in Williamsburg that does the same kind 
of work. It is not at all unhealthy. 

244. Gold and Silver Leaf, The iron hammers used 
for beating gold leaf are very heavy. For the first beating, ham- 
mers weighing twelve pounds are used ; for the second beating, 
hammers weighing six or eight pounds. Strong women could 
perform the second beating of gold leaf, but I do not know that 
they ever do — I think never in the United States, Lads serving 
as apprentices receive $1.50 a week for six weeks, then $2 a week 
for a time, and then more, according to ability and industry. A 
goldbeater told me a youth could get a pretty good insight into 
the business in a year or two, but the usual time of apprentice- 
ship is either three or four years. Goldbeaters earn from $1.50 
to $2 a day. We visited several gold-leaf manufactories, and found 
more uniformity in the time of learning and the prices paid than 
in any other branch of business. It requires from two to twelve 
weeks to learn to book gold leaf, depending on the abilities of 
the learner and the requirements of the establishment. Six weeks 
is the length of time usually given. It can be learned in two 
days, but requires practice to become expert. The girls are not 



240 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

paid while learning, as the materials are costly, and the quantity 
wasted comes to as much or more than the learner^ services are 
worth. The standard price for laying gold leaf is one cent and a 
half a book. Bookers can earn from $2.50 to $5 a week, accord- 
ing to skill and expedition. The tools of a worker are very sim- 
ple. I think, most of the women employed in the gold leaf fac- 
tories of New York are Americans. Gold leaf is so light that 
even a breath of air will move it. In some factories, the booking 
is done in a room with the doors and windows closed — consequently 
the room is very warm in summer. The seasons of the year do 
not affect this business like most others. The demand for gold 
leaf regulates the supply. Where business is not systematically 
conducted, the beaters will sometimes not have the leaf ready to 
book, and so the girls must lose their time waiting; and in some 
cases the men's work is retarded by the absence of the bookers. 
All the manufacturers I talked with thought the prospect good 
of employment to learners. K. & Co. take learners in the spring, 
but will not take them unless they can insure them work when 
the six weeks of learning have expired. Neatness is required. 
No talking is allowed in the work room, as merely a drop of water 
falling from the lips might spoil from $3 to $4 worth of leaf. 
The leaf is weighed when given to the booker and when returned, 
so there is no opening for dishonesty. W. employs his hands all 
the year. The girls always sit while at work. Lightness and 
delicacy of hand are required. The prospect of employment is 
tolerable, but most prefer to retain those they teach, as there is 
much difference in the style and expedition. In some shops 
great care is taken with learners, and they acquire proportionate 
proficiency. We think this a very neat and genteel employment. 
It requires honest workers with nimble fingers. There are but 
very few manufactories South and West. 

245. Jewellers' Findings. D. & Co. manufacture tags 
for all kinds of goods. They employ girls and women in the 
country to string their tags, because they can do it in their spare 
moments, and consequently work cheaply. It pretty much takes 
the place of knitting, and a person could not earn more than 
twenty-five cents a day at it. They so employ thirty or forty 
persons. They also engage a number in box making. It requires 
care and neatness to make small boxes for jewelry. Workers are 
paid by the piece, and can earn from twenty-five cents to $1.25 a 
day, but those who earn the latter amount work from five in the 
morning until ten at night. This work is mostly clone in fami- 
lies. D. & Co. are very strict in their regulations, and particular 
in the kind of work people they employ. 



PENCILS — PENS. 241 

246. Pencils. In Williamsburg, Mass., two women are 
employed in making gold and silver pencil cases. H., of New 
York, employs one girl for engine turning — an ornamental dotted 
work common on pencil and watch cases. He employs her by 
the week, and pays $3. She works ten hours a day. It requires 
but a few days for one of ordinary intelligence to learn. It is 
sedentary, but not unhealthy. He has employed nine women : 
they cannot do the work as well as men, but cheaper. He would 
employ boys, but they are so fond of changing their employment, 
and so anxious to engage in one that will advance them, that it is 
difficult to keep them at that work. It is very clean work. There 
is no prospect of future employment, as one woman can keep up 
with twelve other workers, and so very few are needed. Women 
have to work in the same room with the men, on account of the 
foreman having to regulate the machinery if it gets out of order. 

247. Pens. I saw a gold-pen manufacturer in Brooklyn. 
He will take ten or twelve learners shortly, and pay them from 
the commencement. He must have honest girls, for a dishonest 
girl will take $5 or $10 worth of gold at a time, frequently with- 
out its being missed. He will have a separate apartment for his 
girls-. The best hands can earn from $5 to $6 a week, working 
ten hours a day. It requires only about a month to learn, but 
practice greatly improves and expedites work. He thought the 
prospect rather poor for learners. The part done by men could 
be done by women, but it is dirty work. That done by women 
is rather neat work. W., of Brooklyn, employs a number of girls 
in watch-case polishing and in finishing off pens. The majority 
are Americans. Some are paid by the piece, and some by the 
week. They work ten hours a day, and have employment all the 
year. Some girls learn the art in a short time, and some never. 
Some girls are paid while learning as much as $2.50 a week. 
W. thinks the prospect good of employment in that branch. He 
Wanted several girls more. From the nimbleness of their fingers 
they can do their work better than men. More gold pens are 
made in this country than steel ones. A jeweller said learners 
should be paid from the first, and you may know he is not much 
of a man who would be willing to receive a woman's work for 
nothing. On Nassau street, N. Y., I saw a manufacturer who 
employs girls for stoning, frosting, and polishing pens. They are 
paid by the quantity, and can earn from $3 to $5 a week. They 
stand at a lathe while polishing. The only trouble is that their 
dress is likely to catch on the wheel. That might be remedied 
by wearing Turkish costume without hoops. It requires care and 
some judgment to do the frosting. They are paid something 
while learning, and in two or three months receive full wages. 

11 



242 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

When business is good, the factory is going all the year. To 
make a good finisher requires that the individual have some me- 
chanical talent and be a good penman. Some never succeed. In 
stoning and frosting, girls sit. The finishers are men, and the 
stooping required sometimes produces consumption. So many 
gold pen cases are not used now as formerly — probably not more 
than one tenth as many. Gutta percha has become a substitute. 
N. employed women seven or eight years ago in polishing, stoning, 
and pointing pens, and paid $5 a week of ten hours a day. Manu- 
facturers in Williamsburg, Mass., write : u We employ women 
to make gold pens, pen holders, and jewelry, and pay from $3 to 
$4 per week — some by the piece and some by the week. It re- 
quires from one to three years to learn, according to the part 
they do. They are paid small wages while learning. We wish 
honesty and ingenuity in our workers. The business is perma- 
nent. Work is given at all seasons of the year. The hands 
work eleven and a quarter hours per day. We employ from ten 
to twelve women, because they can do the work equally as well 
as men, at about one third the price. Half are Americans. No 
'other parts of the occupation are suitable for women than those 
in which we emploj" them. Help once settled in the country, if 
married, are likely to be permanent — in cities, vice versa, chang- 
ing about. Our workmen have a fine reading room. Board, $1.50 
for women, $2.50 for men." 

248. Watches, A watch is said to consist of 992 pieces. 
We have seen it stated that two hundred persons are employed 
in the entire process of making a watch, and that, with the ex- 
ception of the watch finishers (who put the parts together), not 
one of the workmen could perform any but his own specific part. 
In Switzerland, families, for generation after generation, devote 
themselves to making particular parts of watches. Women have 
proved their ability to execute the most delicate parts. Twenty 
thousand Swiss women earn a comfortable livelihood by watch 
making. They make the movements, but men mostly put them 
together. I think a few women work as finishers. We quote 
from the Englishwoman's Review : " Geneva has always refused 
to employ women, and has now totally lost the watch trade. 
None of the Geneva watches, so called, come from that part of 
Switzerland, but are manufactured elsewhere, and principally in 
the canton of Neufchatel, where women have been employed from 
the first." Mr. Bennett, of London, " states facts relative to the 
mental culture of both sexes, which is deemed requisite in Swit- 
zerland to prepare the intellect, the eye, and the hand for watch 
manufacture, and he refers to the salubrious dwellings of the 
operatives." A traveller states : " We see women at the head 



WATCHES. 243 

of some of the heaviest manufactories of Switzerland and France, 
particularly in the watch and jewelry line." In England, women 
have been until lately excluded from watch making by men, but 
some are now employed in one establishment in London and in 
several of the provincial towns. " There is a manufactory at 
Christchurch, England, where five hundred women are employed 
in making the interior chains for chronometers. They are pre- 
ferred to men, on account of their being naturally more dexterous 
with their fingers, and therefore being found to require less train- 
ing." From the November number of the Knickerbocker we 
quote : " All imported watches are made by hand, the American 
watches being the only ones made by machinery in a single estab- 
lishment by connected and uniform processes. The Waltham 
watches have fewer parts and are more easily kept in order than any 
others ; and are warranted for ten years by the manufacturers. 
They have over one hundred artisans employed, more than half of 
whom are women." The manufactory occupies a space more 
than half an acre in extent. Hand labor is cheaper in Europe 
than this country, but American watches are cheaper, because 
made by machinery. Making the cases is a distinct branch 
from the interior work, and furnishes employment to some 
women. Cleaning watches would form a pretty and suitable 
employment for women. I was told of some Swiss women living 
in Camden, New Jersey, that make the inside work of watches 
very prettily and very accurately. A manufacturer of chronom- 
eters in Boston writes : " We employ women in cutting, the 
teeth of watch and chronometer wheels, polishing, &c. They are 
generally employed by the week or year, and work nine or ten 
hours a day. Women might be employed in large establishments 
in merely cleaning or polishing the parts of watches repaired, 
without putting them together ; and they might learn to do it in 
a short time, a few months perhaps. We pay our women for 
such work from $4 to $6 a week, according to their capacity. 
The qualifications needed are delicacy of touch, patience, and 
great carefulness. The employment will be very limited. 
Work is steady the year round. The principal objection to 
employing women is that they are very apt to marry just as they 
become skilful enough to be reliable ; therefore, what does not re- 
quire long apprenticeship or a great expense to learn, is most 
desirable for them. A good degree of intelligence is indispen- 
sable. The more, of course, the better." We would add to the 
requisites for a watchmaker, patience and ingenuity. The secre- 
tary of the American Watch Company at Waltham writes : 
" Women are employed at our factory. The employment is entirely 
healthy. We pay from $4 to $7 per week for intelligent girls, 



244 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

and women's average pay is $5. About half are paid by the 
piece. Men earn about double the wages of women, because, first, 
they do more difficult work, are more ingenious, more thought- 
ful and contriving, more reliant on themselves in matters of 
mechanics, are stronger, and therefore worth more, though not 
perhaps double, as an average ; second, because it is the custom to 
pay women less than men for the same labor. Women and girls 
are paid from $2.50 to $4 per week during the first four months, 
while they are learning the particular part of our business we 
set them at. The requisites are a good common-school education, 
general intelligence, and quickness ; light, small hands are best. 
The business is new to the country. We work every working 
day in the year, without detriment to the health of women, who 
seem to endure their labor as well as men. We work ten hours 
a day. There is little demand for labor in the watch-making 
business generally in this country, but we think women could be 
taught successfully the art of watch making, so as to be able at 
least to earn a living as watch repairers. We employ seventy- 
five women out of two hundred hands, and because there are 
many parts of our work they can do equally well with men ; but 
it is generally light and simple work, for which no high degree of 
mechanical skill is requisite. Nine tenths are American born. 
Our hands are all made perfectly comfortable in their labor. 
We employ female labor, where we can, as being cheaper ; but we 
find women do not reach the posts where a high degree of skill is 
needed, as of course they do not those for which their strength is 
insufficient. They have abundant facilites for mental culture in 
the evenings. About half live with parents or relatives ; the rest 
board, and pay from $2 to $3 a week, according to quality." 

249. Watch Case and Jewelry Foiishers. Quite 
a number of women are employed in polishing watch cases, and a 
few in polishing jewelry. It requires some time to learn to do 
> the finest work, and some can never learn. The polishing of good 
gold is done by hand and the lathe — common jewelry, by the 
lathe alone. A good polisher can earn $1 a day often hours' 
work. C. & Co. employ girls, because they do not have to pay 
them so high, and they do it as well. B. & H., who have a fac- 
tory in Jersey City, employ a number of lady polishers. The 
rouge renders it dirty work, but not unhealthy. Very good 
hands can earn $7 or $8 a week. They employ four sisters, 
French girls, who have bought a farm for their parents. They 
have generally paid $23 a week to the four sisters. The prospect 
for learners is good. They generally pay by the week, and have 
their hands work ten hours a day. They take learners, and pay 
something from the first. It requires two years' practice to be- 



WATCH CASE AND JEWELEY POLISHERS. 245 

come very good polishers. They prefer to make an agreement 
with the learner to retain her some time, as the material is costly, 
and considerable is wasted by a learner. In good times they 
have work steadily all the year. Polishers can either sit or stand 
while at work. Burnishing and polishing are different. Bur- 
nishing is done with steel, polishing with buffs. Plated ware is bur- 
nished, silver and gold are polished. S. thinks several girls might, 
in busy times, find employment in polishing jewelry. He often 
advertises for workers, but receives few answers. It requires two 
or three years to learn, and four or five to become perfect work- 
ers. In Germany and France, girls have polished jewelry for 
many years. In the Southern and Western U. States, there are 
no manufactories of any extent. They have not the machinery 
for such work. What little is made and repaired is done in the 
jeweller's shop, or above his store. F. & P. employ small girls 
about thirteen years old to polish, paying $1.50 per week, while 
learning. It requires about a year for young girls to become ex- 
pert. We were told women are the best polishers of jewelry. 
A maker of gold buttons, who has employed girls to polish, paid 
$2 a week to small girls, and $3 to older and more experienced 
hands. The girls are also employed in putting them up. Care 
is needed in polishing, that the work be evenly done. A watch- 
case polisher told me a woman cannot earn more than $2 or $3 
a week at polishing. (It may be all he pays.) Mrs. C. is teach- 
ing a girl to polish watch cases. She boards her, and pays her 
$30 the first year, and furnishes her with a certain number of 
dresses. A good polisher may earn from $6 to $8 a week. She 
told me a lady in Philadelphia, that she taught, is making 
$27 a week. C. has most of his polishing done by a lady. 
He pays boys he takes as apprentices, $2.25 a week, from the 
first. He says a good lady polisher can earn $1 a day. He pays 
his men from $10 to $15 a week, because they do more, and do 
it better than women. In good seasons there is so much polish- 
ing to do that experienced hands are very much hurried. The 
work is not confined to seasons. It does not require long to learn 
to polish. Such work is mostly done in New York, but considerable 
is done in the small towns around. At S.'s we saw a girl polishing, 
who told us she received $1 a day. She says there a girl spends 
six months learning. For three months she receives nothing, 
after that $3 a week. At B.'s, the lathes are moved by steam, 
but have treadles also, that the work may not cease when the en- 
gine or machinery is out of order. Less and less watch work is 
done by hand in the United States every year, owing no doubt 
to the large number imported and the increased use of machinery. 
The work in the business has fallen to European rates. A good 



246 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

polisher has been earning $6 or $7 a week, but very few can do 
so now, and the prospect of employment is poor for a learner. 
Some years ago he employed a lady at $15 a week, for fitting 
movements to the case. The sister of a watch-case maker and 
importer, in Brooklyn, told me that she worked at the business 
some years ago, and received seventy-five cents apiece for polish- 
ing watch cases — now but fifty cents is paid. The lady often 
polished four cases in a day of ten hours, and so earned $3. In 
the European countries, some years back, a man was paid $1 for 
making a watch case; in the United States, $5. Prices have 
fallen greatly in the United States for this kind of work, because 
the duty on imported goods is so low. She says the work is not 
very clean, because the oil and rouge get on your clothes and per- 
son. Everybody should wear working clothes, if their labor is 
such as to soil them. The motion of the foot in moving the lathe 
tries the back greatly. When the polishing is done by steam, it 
is not so. As men and women are paid by the piece, women re- 
ceive as good wages. A smart person can learn to polish in a 
few days, but to learn it thoroughly would require three months. 
Women are paid in this countiy while learning, but in Europe 
they are not. In prosperous times, work is good all the year. 
In summer, work is done for the North ; in winter, for the South. 
A locality in or near a large city is preferable. Prices vary in 
different establishments. Usually, where the best quality of work 
is done, the best prices are paid the work people — where cheaper 
work is done, lower wages are paid. The usual price paid to 
girls as polishers, when they are emplo}^ed by the week, is $6 — 
a better remuneration for mechanical labor than most women 
receive. 

250. Watch Chains. In-rBirm ingham, several hundred 
women are employed in making chains, and we suppose fifty or 
more in this country. The gold wire is prepared and drawn out 
by men, as it requires too much strength for women. All the 
work after that is performed by women. The wire is cut into 
pieces of the right length, then bent into the proper form by 
means of a die worked by a hand press ; each link is then soldered 
together by means of a jet of gas, a blowpipe, and a tiny piece 
of solder, when it is finished by polishing. D. & S. ? Philadelphia, 
employ three girls in soldering. The wages of the girls vary from 
$3.50 to $8 a week. They work ten hours a day. It is not an 
unhealthy business, D. and S. think, and can be learned in two 
months. M. F. & Co., New York, employ girls in soldering 
and polishing chains. Those that solder earn from $3 to $8 a 
week. Some of the girls are paid by the week, and some by the 
inch. It can be pretty well learned in three months. After two 



WATCH CHAINS. 247 

or three weeks they are able to earn about 82 a week. To those 
girls who instruct learners they give the profits of the learners. 
Polishing is not clean work, but the women cao generally earn 
more at it. They earn from S3 to $9 a week. They work ten 
hours a day, when paid by the week, in summer ; but in winter, not 
so long. The building is never lighted. The women have a 
separate apartment to work in, and change their clothes on enter- 
ing and leaving the work room ; and the polishers tie up their heads, 
to prevent their hair being covered with rouge. The girls wear 
the same clothes every day while at work, that they may not carry 
away any gold. The proprietors sell their waste scraps for $8,000 
a year. They require boys to spend five years learning the busi- 
ness, taking them at the age of 16, and retaining them until 21. 
Men that learn a trade expect to follow it until death. M. 
thinks women will not spend long learning a trade, for nearly all 
women look forward to something else than working all their lives 
at a trade. The heat and fumes of gas used in chain making are 
said to render the occupation unhealthy, but an extensive manu- 
facturer assured me that the fumes are not inhaled, as the flame 
is blown from the worker, and that it is not more unhealthy than 
any other sedentary occupation. I would have thought the mi- 
nuteness of the particles composing some chains would be trying 
on the eyes, but the girls said not. The chain makers sit while 
at work. In summer they cannot sit near an open window, lest 
any of the gold be blown away. Chain making looked to be very 
nice, delicate work, requiring care, judgment, and some skill. The 
Europeans have not got to using steam in any part of the process, 
and are astonished at the superiority of the American chains. 
There are no manufactories West or South. I was told at Tiffany's, 
the making of some kinds of chains can be learned in two or three 
years, while other kinds require five years. S., at Tiffany's, told 
me he was the first person that introduced women into the manu- 
facture of jewelry in New York. The hands at chain making re- 
ceive $1.50 a week at first — as they become more skilful, they re- 
ceive more. The average payment is $5 a week. They have one 
woman who has been at the business six years, and earns $8 a 
week. Another manufacturer told me chain making is not un- 
healthy. It requires a year to learn to do polishing well, and 
during that time a learner can earn only from $1.75 to 82 a week. 
While polishing at a lathe, workers stand. Men do most polish- 
ing now. They do it by machinery propelled by steam, and one 
man can accomplish as much in a day as a woman by a treadle 
lathe can do in two weeks. Manufacturers in Providence write 
me, u their girls, from six to fifteen in number, work at home, and 
are paid by the piece. They earn $1 a day of ten hours on an 



248 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

average. They do not employ men in that department of the 
business. It requires men five years to learn the business — • 
females to solder, thirty days. Good eyesight is necessary. The 
business will probably increase with growth of country and in- 
crease of wealth. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. 
They are all American." Some manufacturer in New York 
writes : " The work is not more unhealthy than any other so sed- 
entary. It is generally paid for by the piece, the workers earn- 
ing from $2 to $8 per week. The men average from $10 to $12. 
Men spend seven years learning — girls, one. Quickness of mo- 
tion, perseverance, and attention are desirable qualities. The 
prospect for work in future is moderate. The busy seasons are 
spring and fall. In July, August, January, and February, the 
women are employed. We have from thirty to forty females, be- 
cause the work is light." 

251. Watch Jewels. I called on a Swiss lady who sets 
jewels in watches. She supports her family by it, but complains 
of a scarcity of work, because watchmakers can import their 
jewels at four shillings a dozen from Switzerland, and set them 
themselves. 



MISCELLANEOUS WORK. 

252. Indian Goods. Any one that has ever visited Ni- 
agara, knows something of the immense quantity of Indian goods 
offered for sale. Moccasons and reticules (made of buckskin, and 
ornamented with beads), pincushions, baskets, &c. (made of birch- 
wood, and ornamented with figures and flowers of party-colored 
porcupine quills), can be had. Fans of feathers and a thousand 
little fancy articles may be bought in a dozen different shapes at 
Niagara. The Indians make most of them, but quite a number 
are made by fairer hands. The duty on goods purchased in Her 
Majesty's realm, and brought into the States, is ten per cent. 
So, if a person is careful of his purse, or disposed to encourage 
home manufactures, he had as well purchase on the American 
side. On most of the steamboats and cars of the Western waters, 
while in port or at the depot, genuine Indian women may be seen, 
with (we suppose) genuine Indian articles for sale. 

253. Inkstands. Manufacturers of inkstands in Connec- 
ticut write : " We employ from twelve to fifteen American women 
in painting, varnishing, and bronzing inkstands, and pay from 
fifty to sixty cents per day of ten hours. Females do not per- 



MARBLE WORKERS. 249 

form the same kind of labor that the males do. The wages of 
women are less, because there is a surplus in consequence of there 
being so little diversity in female employment. The occupation 
is learned in from one to two years. That part done by females 
may be learned in one month. They are paid while learning. 
Some mechanical ingenuity is required. The business will de- 
pend on general commercial prosperity. Summer and fall are 
the most busy seasons. No cessation of employment during the 
year.' The other parts of the work are too laborious for women. 
Our location is preferable, as we have water power and are con- 
venient to market. Board, $1.75 per week." 

254. Li thecoma, or artificial stone, is being used as a 
substitute for terra cotta, papier-mache, &c. It is composed of 
mineral substances, and is insoluble in water. It is used for mak- 
ing photograph frames, busts, and statuary, and for architectural 
purposes. It is made in Roxbury, Mass. The proprietor and 
inventor writes : " I employ fourteen women in manufacturing 
and finishing lithoconia photograph frames. Their wages ave- 
rage $5 a week, ten hours a day. Some are paid by the piece, 
and some by the day. Men earn from $1 to $2 per day. Women 
learn in from one to four weeks. Cultivation of the eye and fin- 
ger, and great neatness are desirable in a learner. Girls accus- 
tomed to drawing or fine needle work answer well. The prospect 
of more work is good. My women work the year round. 
Women, I think, are more reliable than men ; that is, if told to 
do a work in a certain way, they will do it. Men are more apt 
to experiment in a new business. Women might be employed in 
gilding the frames. We have twelve men in New York doing 
that for us now. My girls pay from $1.75 to $2 per week for 
board. I hear no complaint of their houses ; but, judging from 
my Scotch experience, the accommodations in Scotland are far su- 
perior in an intellectual point of view; but so far as pies 
and doughnuts go, American boarding houses have the ad- 
vantage." 

255. Marble Workers. The rough parts of marble 
working are wet, dirty, and laborious, but not the finishing. 
Constant standing on the feet, and having the hands wet much 
of the time, would not do for very delicate females. A marble 
worker writes : " Sawing marble is heavy and wet work, and per- 
formed in the night as well as the day. I do not see that women 
could be employed at it to any advantage." Theodore Parker 
mentioned seeing a woman, in a marble yard in Paris, sawing 
marble. I have been told that in Italy whole families engage in 
chiselling the beautiful marble ornaments brought to this country. 
" As a stone cutter, Charlotte Rebecca Schild, of Hanau, worked 
11* 



250 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

in Paris. Miss McD. told me that she got situations for two 
girls with a marble cutter in Hollidaysburg to do the fine part of 
marble chiselling. 

256. Mineral Dc or Knobs. Manufacturers of mineral 
door knobs write : " We have women to make mineral door 
knobs, and to pack locks. They are paid by the piece, and 
average $5 per week. They work from nine to ten hours a day. 
It requires six months to learn. The prospect for further em- 
ployment is small. Seasons make no difference in the work; We 
find men better adapted to the work. Our business affords little 
or no opportunity for the employment of women to advantage. 
We have about two hundred women in busy seasons. When 
men and women are employed in the same department, they talk 
too much," 

257- Paper Cutters. We read in " Women Artists" 
of a Dutch lady, " Joanna Koertin Block, who produced from 
paper very beautiful cuttings. All that the engraver accomplishes 
with the burin, she was able to do with the scissors. Country 
scenes, marine views, animals, flowers, with portraits of perfect 
resemblance, she executed in a marvellous manner." " Mrs. Dards 
opened a new exhibition with flower paintings in the richest 
colors. They were exact imitations of nature, done with fish 
bones." 

258. Papier-Mache Finishers. Papier-mache is made of 
paper ground into a pulp, and bleached if necessary. It is moulded 
into various forms. It has been cast into figures of life size. It is 
made into mouldings for the ornamental parts of bronzes. It is 
lighter, more lasting, and less brittle than plaster. It can be 
colored or gilt. Another article of the same name is made by 
gluing and pressing together, very powerfully, sheets of prepared 
paper until they acquire the thickness of pasteboard. They 
must be shaped while moist into the articles desired. When dry, 
they will be very hard and firm. They must be covered with 
japan, or other varnish, and may be beautifully painted with 
flowers, birds, landscapes, &e. Workboxes, portfolios, waiters, 
miniature cases, clock faces, and many other beautiful articles 
may be made of it. The varnishing, painting, and inlaying is 
done by women in the factories of England. Papier-mache* 
manufacturers in Boston write : " We employ women in pressing 
and painting. The work is healthy. We pay $4 per week of 
ten hours a day. Men and women do not perform the same kind 
of work. We pay learners $2.50 the first month, $3 the second, 
$3.50 the third, and $4 afterward. The prospect of future em- 
ployment is good. We find women have not a mechanical eye. 
Board, $2 per week." 



PIPES PORCELAIN. 251 

259. Pipes. Meerschaum means " foam of the sea." The 
pipes are made from earth found in the island of Samos. They 
are light, porous, and not easily broken. Some pipes are sold as 
genuine that are made from the clay left after forming and cut- 
ting the real pipes, but are of an inferior quality. A manufacturer 
of meerschaum pipes told me he employs a woman to polish the 
pipes. It is done by hand. She is paid $1.25 a dozen, and can 
do two or three dozen a day, but they have not enough of work 
to give her more than a dozen a week. A maker of white clay 
pipes told me : " The clay is brought from England. Nimbleness 
of fingers is most that is required for success. There is not much 
of that kind of work done now in our country, because pipes are 
imported from Germany for what the labor costs here. They 
are retailed at one penny apiece. Women used to make them 
here, and do now in European countries. They can do all parts 
of the work. Putting them in the furnace and baking them is 
warm work, but not more so than any other baking. The work 
is paid for according to the number of pipes made. A woman 
can earn about fifty cents a day for moulding, yet a man can earn 
$5 a day, because he can mould faster, and also attend the fur- 
nace." Besides, the man owns the tools and furnace, which do 
not cost a great deal, and I suppose would last a lifetime. We 
have seen it stated that white clay smoking pipes are made in 
Philadelphia by one person, who recently sent to England to 
procure additional assistance. 

260. Porcelain. Porcelain partakes of the nature of both 
earthenware and glass. It is a connecting link between the two. 
Few men are willing to run the risk of establishing porcelain and 
china-ware manufactories in this country, for they have nearly 
all proved failures. The porcelain of China and Japan is harder 
and more durable than that manufactured in Europe, but in 
beauty of form and elegance of design the European excels. Our 
best articles of household ware are mostly from England, those 
of an ornamental kind from France. Much of the work in a 
porcelain factory could be done by women, such as cutting the 
porcelain with wires, moulding the articles with a press, and wash- 
ing them over with dissolved porcelain to produce a gloss. They 
could also bake them. Some do decorate and burnish them. (See 
China Decorators.) Women and children are employed in Corn- 
wall, England, in preparing clay from china stone to be used by 
porcelain manufacturers, paper makers, and calico dressers. Miss 
B. told me that much of the fine lacework seen on Dresden china 
is executed by women. It is very beautiful and delicate. At 
Greenpoint, L. I., the proprietor once employed girls, but now 
employs boys in preference. The men earn about $10 a week on 



252 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

an average for their work, being paid by the piece. The best of 
materials for making porcelain are found in this country, particu- 
larly in New Hampshire, where porcelain, parian, and enamel flint 
are manufactured. Porcelain earths are also found at Wilming- 
ton, Del., near Philadelphia, and in Alabama and Texas. 

261. Pottery and Earthenware. "In Africa, in 
the manufacture of common earthen vessels for domestic use, the 
women are as skilful as the men." In the making of stone and 
earthenware, women could, if properly instructed, perforin most 
of the processes : those of throwing, turning, attaching handles, 
&c. Pressing might perhaps tax their strength, and burning 
prove rather warm work. In Germany, where the finer clay is 
used, women tramp the clay with their feet, and cut it with wires 
to remove any small stones it may contain. One of the disagree- 
able parts that fall to women in the potteries of Great Britain is 
that of washing and straining the clay. For turning large articles 
it requires men of a peculiar make. They must be tall and have 
long arms, to enable them to reach to the bottom of the vessels as 
they are being turned. Small articles made by the hand are 
stronger than those formed by pressing. The construction and 
management of wheels differ in Germany, England, and the United 
States. The materials for making earthenware are obtained in 
almost every part of the globe. At an earthenware factory I was 
told they pay $2.50 a week to a boy the first year he is learning, 
and increase that according to ability and industry. Flower pots 
are paid for by the piece, and a man can earn from $1.50 to $5 a 
day. At C. & M.'s factory I saw girls and women at work. Some 
were treading the lathe. It was done with the right foot only, 
and must be very fatiguing. I noticed the hoops of the girls 
were very much in the way. The girls receive one third as much 
as the men working at the wheels, which is generally $3 a week 
for the girls. A woman cutting claws of the clay with a hand 
press, told me she is paid by the piece, and can earn about $4 a 
week. She can sit while at work. It requires strength of hand. 
In another room girls were cutting clay with a wire, kneading with 
the hand, and giving it to the potter, and, when the vessel is 
turned, taking it off the wheel and placing it on a board to be 
baked. They are paid fifty cents a day. In another room a 
woman was employed dressing the ware, that is, selecting any 
that is imperfect and removing any surplus clay that may have 
been accidentally left on, and setting aside any too defective for 
sale. She receives about $3 a week. The proprietors have been 
thinking of getting girls in place of some of the boys who are wild 
and difficult to manage. A firm in East Boston write : " We 
employ four girls, paying $3.50 a week. Girls are more generally 



GLASS MANUFACTURERS. 253 

employed in the old countries at potteries than in this, but women 
will eventually be more employed here in that way. Pottery is 
now in its infancy in this country. My girls work ten hours. 
The employment is not unhealthy. My girls are all English. 
We employ them to do light work only, that boys would do, if we ( 
had no women. Board, 12.50. We employ thern^ all the year. 
Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. We hope to live 
to see the time when we shall have twenty women and four men, 
instead of vice versa, as they are more steady and less expensive." 

262. Stucco ¥/ork. " Women are not employed at this 
trade in this country ; in England there are some instances, but 
rarely. It is not unhealthy. The time spent in learning depends 
altogether on the taste and natural talent of the learner. Boys 
generally serve from three to five years. For ordinary work the 
qualifications need not be of a very high order ; but for mould- 
ing, &c, a knowledge of drawing is essentially necessary. Sum- 
mer and fall are the best seasons for this work. Ten hours a day 
are the usual number. Women may be employed at trimming 
and cleaning ornaments — also at making moulds for casting the 
same." Rosina Pnauder, in Salzburg, assisted her husband in 
stucco work. 

263. Terra Cotta. The list of articles made of this 
substance is comprised under two heads, vases and garden pots, 
and ornaments for architecture. A Gothic church was built of 
it in 1842 at Lever Bridge, England. The pulpit, reading desk, 
benches, organ screen, and the whole of the decorations were made 
of terra cotta. In the making of figures, women could do all ex- 
cept moulding. The finishing up would be suitable and pretty 
work for them. " Mile, de Faveau has been peculiarly successful 
in her adaptation of terra cotta to artistic purposes." 

264. Transferrers on Wood. We do not know whether 
a distinct class of people engage in this business, or whether it is 
considered a branch of cabinet work. It is a light, pleasant busi- 
ness, and if there is sufficient demand for it, women would do well 
to engage in it. 



GLASS MANUFACTURERS. 

265. Glass Manufacture. All the materials for mak- 
ing good glass exist in the United States, and a great deal of 
glassware is made from them. The largest manufactures are in 
different parts of Massachusetts and in Pittsburg. The best glass 



254: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

for windows and mirrors is imported. I think glass making is 
not altogether suitable for women on account of the great heat, 
and necessity there would be for mixing with men, and men there 
must be. Yet it need not be so in all departments. Of the dif- 
ferent kinds of ornamental window glass are enamelled, embossed, 
etched, painted, white, and colored. At a glass factory in Green- 
point, I saw some girls employed in breaking off the rough edges 
of mustard cruets, cementing the metal tops on, wiping them 
clean, and wrapping them up. They also cemented the tops on 
glass lamps. Occasionally they are employed to tramp with 
their feet and knead with their hands the English clay of which 
the vessels are made for holding the materials that are fused to 
form glass. In a factory I saw a girl washing glass, for which 
she is paid $3 a week — a day of ten hours. Two others were 
tying up glass, and were paid $4 a week of ten hours a day. At 
one factory in the East, they employ some girls to do the rough 
grinding, making stoppers for bottles, &c. People who silver 
mirrors are very seriously affected by the fumes of mercury, and 
more by the touch of the substance. A trembling disease is pro- 
duced, which carries off its victims early in life. In France, some 
women are employed in this work. In blowing, moulding, and 
pressing glass, women of strong lungs and ability to sustain great 
heat could be employed. Casting glass requires greater physical 
strength than generally falls to the lot of women. A glass-bottle 
manufacturer in Stoddard, N. H., writes: a I employ twelve 
women willowing demijohns. They are paid by the piece, and can 
make about $3 per week, and board themselves. Men and women 
are paid the same. The work can be learned in from four to five 
weeks. They are paid at the same rate while learning. Half are 
Americans. Price of board here, $1.25." The Bay State Glass 
Co. " employ seventeen women for selecting and papering ware. 
They are paid by the week, from $3 to $5. It requires from one 
week to one month to learn. The prospect for employment de- 
pends somewhat upon the secession movement. The women are 
employed the year round, and work ten hours a day. Board, 
$1.50 to $2 a week." The Suffolk Glass Co. inform us they " em- 
ploy one girl in capping lamps, &c. The work affords plenty 
of air and exercise. Their girl is paid by the day, and earns $4 
a week, working ten hours a day. The work done by women 
could not be given to men. The reason they employ a woman is 
that women are employed by others for the same work. Men 
could accomplish much more in their work, but not enough to 
pay the difference in their wages. Boys are sometimes employed 
for such work. Women receive $2 while learning. Spring and 
fall are the busy seasons, but work is furnished all the year. 



GLASS BLOWEKS BEADS. 255 

Board, $2 to $2.50." The Union Glass Co., Boston, write : " We 
employ women in assorting the different qualities of ware, in 
cementing glass and brass parts together, and in cleanino- class. 
Their average pay is $3.50 per week, ten hours a day. There 
is no comparison in the prices of male and female labor, as they 
do not perform the same kind. The laws of supply and demand 
regulate pay, excepting that very valuable women get twenty- 
five to fifty per cent, extra pay. Men spend from seven years to 
a lifetime learning the business — women a year or so to learn the 
best paid kind of labor. There is little chance of women rising 
above $5 per week, as they perform only a certain department of 
labor. There is generally constant employment to good hands 
all the year. We employ fifteen, because it is customary and 
found expedient. Men can be employed at a better profit in 
other departments. Remuneration twenty-five to fifty per cent, 
less than men would require. The glass manufacture is carried 
on chiefly in the New England and Middle States. 15 

265. Blowers. I called in a factory where men were 
blowing glass bells to color and gild for Christmas trees. The 
man, a German, said in Germany women make them. The wom- 
en there earn fifty cents a week at it, while men earn $2, though 
they do the work no better, and no more of it. There a person 
can live as well on $3 a week as on $10 here 

267. Beads. Beads are made to a limited extent in this 
country, but nearly all are of French or German manufacture. 
Some cheap beads are made of potato and colored, and some made 
in imitation of coral. E. employs girls to make baskets, head- 
dresses, &c, of beads. They cannot earn more than $2.50 a week 
of ten hours a day. He has most of it done in winter. Another 
gentleman, who has beads made into bracelets, necklaces, &c, 
gives the work mostly to married ladies, who do it in their leisure 
hours, and to school girls. They do so, because they can get it 
done more cheaply than if they employed those who do it to earn 
a living. They pay for such work by the gross, and a person 
could not earn over $3 a week at it. Putting the necklaces on 
cards is done by some ladies they employ by the week. Spring 
] and winter are the busy seasons. The importation and selling of 
beads have formed quite a business in New York for some years. 
G. judges from the appearance of the applicants whether they are 
to be trusted with materials, takes an account of the kind and quan- 
tity given, and the address of the applicant, requiring them to be 
returned in a week's time. B. has children's coral bracelets and 
armlets made up, for which he employs two English girls, who each 
earn $1 a day at their work. 



256 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

268. Cutters or Grinders. It requires strength, firm- 
ness of nerve, and cultivation of eye to grind glass. One man 
told me he spent seven years learning the business in England. 
In this country, apprentices seldom spend more than three or four 
years at it, but do not of course learn it so thoroughly. A glass 
cutter told me that two girls, daughters of his boss in Jersey City, 
made drops for chandeliers. They were ground on a lapidary's 
wheel. As drops are no longer fashionable, they are not made. 
They also cut stones for breastpins. Glass cutters in New York 
earn from $9 to $10 per week. Glass cutting could be done by 
women. No women in this country have yet engaged in it. It 
is not very neat work, as the wet sand will of course get over the 
clothes. The number of straps and wheels is very numerous, and 
if any women desire to engage in it, we would advise them to lay 
aside hoops and don the Bloomer costume. Grinding is tiresome 
to the lower limbs, which are kept in motion, like a person operat- 
ing on a sewing machine. It requires taste and ingenuity, as the 
figures of an experienced workman must be made by the eye, no 
pattern being used. Apprentices usually receive $2 a week the 
first year, $3 the next, $4 the next, and so on. 

269. Embossers. In preparing gas and lamp globes to 
emboss, they are first covered with a dark-colored substance. 
Girls then trace figures on them with a chemical which corrodes 
the glass. The tracing is learned in a few hours, and could be 
done without much practice. At a glass factory, I saw a girl who 
received $2 a week for tracing. Those who have worked at it 
for some time become very expeditious, and do piece work. They 
receive fifty cents a dozen, and a fast hand can do two dozen a 
day. The operatives work nine hours. 

270. Enamellers. A glass stainer and enameller in Utica 
writes: " In reply to your circular, I give what information I can. 
My daughters assist me in staining and enamelling glass. Their 
wages are worth from $5 to $8 each. Learners are paid from 
$2 to $4. To learn the work requires from three to five years. 
Spring and fall are the most busy times. The business will in- 
crease. I consider eight hours a day long enough for women to 
spend at this kind of work, as they have to be on their feet most 
of the time, but men can work ten' hours. All parts are suitable 
for women except drawing (?) and the heavy parts of the work." 
A large manufacturer of enamelled glass told me that in England 
hundreds of women are employed in enamelling glass. He em- 
ploys a number in Newark, N. J., paying by the week from $4 to 
$5. He thinks it not more unhealthy than working in any other 
paint. He thinks the opinion existing that the business is preju- 
dicial to health, arises mostly from the girls being so very careless 



ENGRAVERS A3TD PAINTERS ON GLASS. 257 

of themselves. One should be as careful in that work as in any 
other. He said he knew girls working at it in England for 
eighteen years, who never suifered any bad effects from it. It re- 
quires but a short time to learn to put the enamel on, but some 
time to acquire proficiency. He and his partner expect to in- 
crease the manufacture of it, but think of using a machine that 
will do away with women's work in applying the enamel. He 
complained that their girls lacked promptness. They keep them 
employed all the year. They work nine hours in summer, and 
eight in winter. He thinks a few women with artistic taste might 
learn etching, and execute their own designs. He would be will- 
ing to pay a good lady designer 88 or $10 a week — yet he pays 
his men for that work from $12 to $15. (! ! !) He thinks, in a 
factory, a lady so employed would find it most pleasant to have a 
separate apartment. My opinion is that one or two lady designers 
and a few enamellers might find employment in this line. M. says 
enamelling is very deleterious. The enamel is made of three 
fourths lead and a fine sand, with a small quantity of tin. It is 
of a softer nature than glass, and is applied with stencil plates 
and brushes. As the enamel dries a dust arises, which is inhaled, 
and is more or less injurious to the lungs, producing something 
like the painter's colic. It also affects the eyes some. A glass 
stainer in Boston, who employs some women to enamel, writes 
<c he pays them by the day, and they earn from $4 to $6 per 
week. They receive as much as men would for the same class 
of work. It requires but a few days to learn enamelling ; eight 
or nine years for glass staining. He sometimes pays part or two 
thirds wages to learners. The prospect for future employment is 
uncertain, as little of the above work is done in this country. To 
get near the materials is an item in selecting a location." 

271. Engravers, An engraver on glass told me there 
are only from ten to thirteen glass engravers in New York. In 
Bohemia, whole families engrave glass ; and women do so in other 
parts of Europe also. A good glass engraver is paid $3 a day. * 

272. Painters. Painting on glass was practised by nans 
and monks some ages back. H. said he used to employ ladies 
to paint on glass. His wife would give instruction in painting 
and transferring on glass, for $20 — $10 to be paid on entering, 
the other $10 when the learner feels that she is thorough. To 
paint on glass, one must understand colors, as opaque paints 
would not answer. One must have some knowledge of shades to 
attain excellency in decorative painting. Embellished glass is 
cheaper than stained glass, and does not require a furnace ; yet 
if burned, has the pigment rendered more durable. In England, 
many wealthy ladies buy traced glass and paints, and color and 



258 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

shade it. Pictures transferred on glass can be finely finished up 
and burnt. Painted glass is more brilliant than stained. H. 
thinks to learn the art is a safe investment. He thought a few 
ladies might learn painting and transferring on glass, Grecian 
painting, and wax flowers, and turn it to account by travelling 
through the country, stopping in small towns, exhibiting and sell- 
ing specimens and giving instruction. Painting glass need not 
be merely a source of amusement, but prove an art of utility. 
H. spoke of some people as speculators — not practitioners in the 
art (such I would say he would make of ladies). He thinks, 
among connections and at fairs a lady might meet with ready 
sale for painted glass. The pieces could be framed to hang at a 
window or place on a table. Painted glass is less costly than 
stained glass. A glass gilder can easily earn $2 a day. Women 
can do the filling in with very little instruction. It would 
probably take several months' practice to learn to form the letters 
perfectly. 

273, Stainers. Stained glass is now generally used for 
churches, and to some extent for dwellings. The Germans are 
the most successful in staining glass. There are two kinds of 
stained glass — the pot metal, the coloring substances of which 
are fused in the glass and then burnt. The pictures of the other 
kind are formed of small pieces, each one painted separately, 
burnt, and united with blacklead. Frequently a window is 
formed of hundreds of these pieces. A picture of stained glass 
looks on the right side like a rich oil painting on canvas. I 
have been told there are 18,000 shades of stained glass. G. 
•charges $6 a square foot for stained glass of a fine kind. There 
is a lady in England, that fills large orders for the stained glass 
windows of churches and cathedrals. Madame Bodichon writes 
as follows of a convent of Carmelite nuns she visited at Mans, 
France : " By the direction of the sisters, glass windows of all 
sorts, and in every stage of progress, were shown to us by an 
intelligent young man — one of the artists in the employ of the 
convent. He told us there were twenty-seven employes, two of 
them German artists; but the sisters arrange everything, carry 
on all the immense correspondence, and execute orders not only for 
France, but for America, Borne, and England, and other coun- 
tries. Three of the nuns are occupied in painting upon glass them- 
selves, but the principal part of the work is done by the artists, 
under the direction of the ladies." It requires a person of 
artistic skill and taste to excel in staining glass, and the work is 
best appreciated by people acquainted with art. It would re- 
quire at least three or four years to learn the art well. A 
knowledge of other styles of painting is not of much assistance. 



WATCH CRYSTALS. 259 

The paint must be put on very thickly, but very evenly. There 
seems to be a combination of arts in the business to one who per- 
forms all the parts. A man must be enough of a glazier to cut 
glass, enough of a chemist to understand the colors to be used 
and the length of time the glass should be exposed to heat, enough 
of a designer to prepare his own patterns, and enough of an 
artist to color with taste. A man can earn at least $18 or $20 a 
week, who is proficient in the art. The business has increased 
greatly during the last few years in the United States, and is 
continuing to increase. Much of the stained glass used in the 
United States is of home manufacture. The designs for stained 
glass are usually made by the proprietor of an establishment. 
Skill in drawing is very desirable for any one working at the 
business. The art is one that affords exercise for inventive 
talent, artistic skill, and good taste. In a few glass-staining 
establishments, girls do the tracing. It requires an apprentice- 
ship of four years to learn the grinding, enamelling, and staining 
of glass. A boy is usually paid $1.50 a week the first year, but 
he is expected to grind colors, clean brushes, go errands, &c. 
An employer informed me he pays from $1 to $3 a day to men 
for staining glass. S. spent about seven years in England learn- 
ing the business. He painted a window not long ago for $5,000. 
He does his own designing. He says it would not pay to have 
separate designers. He is acquainted with some secret in color- 
ing, that he would not impart for a great deal. Great progress 
has* been made in the art in this country during the last few 
years. It requires more skill than painting on canvas. 

274, Watch Crystals. M. told us there are two kinds 
of watch crystals made in this country the English and Dutch. 
The English are the best. The Dutch make them in a cheaper way. 
Men bend, cut out, and clip them. Females grind the edges. 
The Dutch can be known from the English by a more sudden 
rounding near the edges, while the English round from the cen- 
tre equally. In W illiamsburg, German women can be seen 
at work in watch crystal factories. B. told me he used to 
" employ girls to grind and polish glasses. They were paid $3 a 
week — ten hours a day. It requires but two or three weeks to 
learn, and during that time they are not paid, because of the time 
lost in giving instruction and the material wasted. Now it is all 
done by Germans, and Americans need not expect to get in." V. 
confirmed the statement. He says it is mostly done by German 
families, and the women that are hired are never paid over $3 a 
week. It is light and steady work, and they are employed all 
the year, and do not work in the same apartment as men. In 
some of the factories of Europe, from one hundred to one hundred 
and fifty women are employed. 



260 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



CHINA DECORATOBS. 

275. China Decorators. We find that in France, some 
years back, many females earned a livelihood by painting on 
porcelain. During the last century, a Madame Gerard, " who 
possessed a large fortune, had a hotel furnished with facilities for 
painting Sevres. Her splendid cupboards of polished mahogany 
were gilded and bronzed, and their contents looked like a rich 
collection for the gratification of taste rather than for sale. She 
purchased some pieces for sixty and eighty louis d'ors. A pair 
of vases, not very large, painted with sacred subjects, sold for 
26,000 livres." "There are two distinct methods of painting in 
use for china and earthenware : one is transferred to the bisque, 
and is the method by which the ordinary painted ware is pro- 
duced ; and the other transferred on the glaze." In the former 
process, women called transferrers and cutters are employed. 
The cutter trims away the superfluous paper around the pattern, 
which the transferrer applies to the ware, and rubs with flannel to 
produce an impression. She then washes the paper off, and the 
ware is ready for the hardening kiln. Women are excluded from 
that department termed ground laying, though, from the care 
and lightness of touch required, it is very suitable. In Stafford- 
shire, E., great opposition was made some years back to women 
becoming decorators, and even now they are not permitted to use 
a hand rest. In France, and to a limited extent in England, 
decorating, gilding, and burnishing are done by women. This 
is probably one reason that imported China is cheaper. Most 
of those in France and England who attain respectable skill in de- 
corating, are the wives or daughters of working manufacturers. 
Besides the mechanical skill, it requires a very exact knowledge 
of the effects of the coloring matters employed, as they are much 
changed by being burnt. Decorating is certainly a beautiful 
employment for women, but few in this country have the op- 
portunity and are willing to apply themselves long enough to 
learn the art. At K.'s china warerooms, Philadelphia, I was 
told, no establishments of any size in the United States are en- 
gaged in the decoration of china, because they can get it done 
more cheaply in England and France. K. employs Englishmen 
to do what decorating he wishes to have done. He employs 
women to burnish. The following contradictory statement I 
found in the " Manufactures of Philadelphia-: 5 ' " Decorating porce- 
lain and china ware, which had been imported plain, is done in 
one establishment in Philadelphia to an amount exceeding 



LEATHER. 261 

$75,000 per annum." At H.'s, New York, I saw women bur- 
nishing china. It is merely a mechanical operation, consisting in 
rubbing the gilding with agate, after being burnt. The girls 
earn from $3.50 to $4.00 a week. It requires care and physical 
strength. One girl was cleaning superfluous paint off the china. 
Women might learn to make impressions for letters, flowers, and 
other patterns. I saw an English lady in New York decorating 
china. A lady took lessons of either her or her husband, to teach 
in the school of design. S. employs one woman for painting, and 
fifteen for burnishing china. China decorating is usually paid 
for by the piece. Mixing the colors for china painting is not 
more unhealthy than mixing them for canvas, and putting them 
on not more so than any other sedentary occupation. A French 
decorator told me that in Paris he gave private instruction to 
some ladies who learned it for a pastime, and a few who made a 
business of it. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and New Or- 
leans are the only places where china is painted in the United 
States. L. thinks a person of taste and abilities could learn in 
one year, earning nothing during the time, and after that earn 
from $5 to 110 a week. He pays his burnishers $3 a week. 
Another decorator told me he pays his burnishers (girls) from $2 
to $2.50 a week. The foreman of a large establishment in New 
York told me that it requires several years to learn to decorate 
perfectly. Most decorators design their own patterns, and usually 
earn $12 a week. He says, in busy seasons it is difficult to get 
enough of good burnishers. His girls work only in daylight, and 
earn from $3 to 15 a week. They are busy all the year — most 
so three months before New Year. It requires three months' 
practice to become a good burnisher. A learner receives $1 a 
week from the time she commences to learn burnishing : he 
thinks it is not hard on the eyes. The work is paid for by the 
piece. If there was a higher protective duty, more decorating 
would be done in the United States. 



LEATHEE. 



276. Leather. A leather dresser, somewhere in New York 
State, writes : " Leather dressing is a disagreeable, wet business, 
fit only for men. After leather is dressed, all the other work 
can be done by women. We cut by measure and by pattern. 



262 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

A person cutting and making should earn one hundred per cent. 
Women can cut, make, and sell as well as men, I suppose even 
better. 7 ' 

277. Currying. The currying of skins might be done by 
women. Cutting it of the desired thickness, soaking it in water, 
and working it with a small stone, cleaning it with a brush, and, 
in the drying shed, applying oil and tallow, would not require 
very long practice for one of any mechanical talent. The skin is 
softened by being doubled and washed with a grooved board. It 
is then carefully shaved, and worked again, after which it is 
blackened and grained. The work would require some strength, 
but not more than the ordinary process of washing clothes. All 
the work must be performed standing. The process of converting 
the skins of sheep, lambs, and kids into soft leather, is called taw- 
ing, and is somewhat lighter work than currying ; yet the leather 
requires much stretching and rubbing. I am sure the work would 
not be more, if so offensive, as morocco sewing. 

278. Harness, A harness maker told me that a lady 
who stitches harness of the best quality, can earn from $1.25 to 
$1.50 a day. He pays $1 a set for stitching the blinds. The 
perforations are made by a man, and they are stitched by hand. 
Not a great many are engaged in it, and he thinks the prospect 
good of learners obtaining employment. Many earn $6 or $7 a 
week. He employs two women all the year. A person that can 
sew well, can learn in two or three weeks. It requires some in- 
struction. A maker of horse collars told me his women stitch 
collars by machine ; formerly by hand. He pays six cents a pair. 
The wife of one of his workmen stitches twelve an hour, with one 
of Howe's machines. B. employs from fifty to seventy-five girls 
to make fancy harness, horse blankets, and coach tassels. Fancy 
bridles he has stitched by Singer's machine. Good operators 
can earn from $5 to $7 a week, and for leather work are paid by 
the week. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. The 
fashions of fancy leather work change. One gentleman, who em- 
ploys many girls in making harness trimmings, says the cloth 
pieces are made by hand, the leather by machinery. In Newark. 
Bridgeport,, and New Haven, much of the stitching for the South 
is done by machines, and women are employed. The English 
harness is considered the best, and is done by hand. In England, 
men called " bridle cutters " get large quantities of bridles to 
make up, and employ from one hundred to two hundred girls to 
do the stitching. A lady who has quite an establishment in Ne\v 
York, and employs a number of work people, told me that she 
pays them each from $2 to $6 a week. She thinks machine 
operating is trying on the health, but not so bad as sewing with a 



MOEOCCO SEWEKS. 263 

needle. She pays by the week. Women do as well as men, ex- 
cept for heavy work. The trade can be learned in a few weeks. 
She pays learners something. Her hands have work all the year, 
but are most busy from October till the end of December. They 
work ten hours. She prefers men for most of the work. She 
would like American women, but cannot get them. She says 
girls think more of having a beau than laying up a few dollars 
in a bank, and consequently spend all they make on dress. A 
manufacturer writes : " Working on leather is considered very 
healthy. I employ thirteen women in the manufacture of fancy 
bridles, riding and driving reins, riding martingales, &c. They 
average $1 per day. Three of them run stitching machines. All 
are paid by the piece, except one, who does the overseeing and 
writing. We think the girls receive as good pay as the men. 
Considerable practice is necessary to do the work well. Learners 
are paid for all work that is sufficiently well done to be salable. 
Good judgment, accurate eye, and nimble fingers, best fit one for 
the occupation. As our business is wholesale, it depends upon 
orders. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. Sometimes 
the women are entirely out of work for a short time in winter. 
They never work over ten hours. We will not employ foreigners." 

279. Jewel and Instrument Cases. At a manufac- 
tory, I was told they employ some girls, paying by the piece. 
The girls can earn $4.50 to $5 a week, of ten hours a day. It 
does not require long to learn. In busy seasons it is difficult to 
get good hands, and they have to advertise frequently. At 
another place, the proprietor told me he used to employ girls who 
earned $4 or $5 a week, but he prefers boys, because they can do 
all parts of the work. At a manufactory of morocco and velvet 
jewel cases, the man told me he pays girls $4.50 and $5 a week, 
of ten hours a day. In busy seasons it is difficult to get good 
hands. 

280. Morocco Sewers. At a morocco manufactory, I 
was told by the proprietor, a German, that he employs girls, pay- 
ing twelve cents a dozen, and they can sew from five to twelve 
dozen a day. He wants hands, and of course would speak favor- 
ably of the occupation. He says they can have work all the 
year except one or two weeks. At an American manufacturer's, 
I was told it is wet, dirty work, and requires considerable time 
and practice to learn to do it quickly. After working at it con- 
stantly four or five years, a good hand may be able to earn from 
$5 to $7 a week. Most of it is done in the families of tanners. 
Some women undertake it, but give it up because they do it so 
slowly it will not pay. The man said nearly or quite all who 
work at it are Germans, and the wives and daughters of those in 



264 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

the business. They are paid twelve cents a dozen. The occupa- 
tion he thinks is full in New York ; for women. Beginners are 
apt to hurt their fingers, as needles are used, the sides of which 
are triangular. Sewing live skins a day is considered very good 
work. Dr. Wynne says : " Exhalations from animal substances, 
which are very offensive to the senses, more especially to that of 
smell, not only appear to be in most instances innoxious, but often 
of absolute advantage in affording a protection from disease." 
Most morocco is made in Philadelphia, none South or West. S. 
employs sixteen women, and pays good hands from $4 to $5 per 
week. He thinks there are at least two hundred morocco sewers 
in Philadelphia. It does not take long to learn. He pays from 
the first. They have work all the year, but the prospect for 
learners is poor. At A.'s, Philadelphia, I saw some women sew- 
ing up goat skins, which were to be tanned. It is extremely dis- 
agreeable work, as the skins are wet and smell offensively. The 
women are paid twelve cents a dozen, and find their own thread. 
A steady hand can earn from $3.50 to $6 a week, and can always 
find work. They are most busy in spring and fall. A morocco 
dresser writes : " He pays by the piece, and his women each earn 
about seventy-five cents a day. A woman can learn in two or 
three weeks. The prospect for future employment is very poor, 
as skins are mostly tanned now without sewing. A location 
must always be had where pure water is abundant." 

281. Pocket Books. One man told me he employs a 
woman to make portemonaies, paying $5 a week. On Broadway 
a firm employs four or five women, pa}dng from $3 to &6 a week. 
It requires but two or three months to learn the business. The 
women sew with a machine, paste morocco on, and varnish some 
parts. C. pays his girls from $3.50 to $4 a week. At another 
place one of the firm told me their girls earn |3, $4, and 15 a 
week. It is piece work, and requires but three or four weeks to 
learn. A smart girl can earn $2 the first week. The busy 
seasons are spring and fall. They find it difficult to get enough 
good hands in those seasons. The business is mostly confined to 
New York and Philadelphia. A manufacturer in New York 
told me, about two hundred women are employed in making 
pocket books, &c, in that city. He pays $4.50 a week, but they 
have a certain quantity to do in that time. It requires but a 
short time to learn to do the stitching only (which he has done 
by hand), but about a year to learn to do all parts. He pays $2 
a week while they are learning, and then he increases at the rate 
of twenty-five cents a week after a few months, and at the end of 
the year some are earning $3; some $3.25. Neatness in cutting 
and fitting the parts together is desirable. He keeps his hands 



SADDLE SEATS — TANNING. 265 

employed all the year. There is a scarcity of good hands, but 
an abundance of indifferent ones. A manufacturer in Maine 
writes : " We employ from eight to twelve American girls. They 
are paid by the "piece, and earn from $12 to $16 per month. 
Boys earn about the same as girls. They are paid while learn- 
ing, if the work is well done. It requires about a year to become 
proficient." 

282. Saddle Seats. In Philadelphia, I was told at a 
large saddle store that they employ women to stitch saddles, 
paying from fifty cents apiece for common ones to $1.25 for 
those of a better quality. At a large saddle and harness man- 
ufactory in New York, I was told they employ women to stitch 
by the machine and by hand. They are paid by the day, as there 
is a variety of work, and their girls are not confined to exclusive 
branches. In prosperous times their hands are employed most 
of the year. Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. 
There are small factories in most of the Southern and Western 
cities. The hand sewers earn but $3 and $5 a week ; a few ope- 
rators can make $6. At S. & M,'s they employ about twenty 
women in the different branches, and, when business is good, have 
work all the year. It does not require long to learn. They are 
paid by the week, from $3 to $4. Prospect dull. This kind of 
work is mostly done in Newark. 

283. Tanning. Leather can now be tanned by a chemical 
process in a few days. Leather has been made so thin, and re- 
ceived so high a polish, that it has been used for making bonnets 
in Paris. Buckskin is used for making many articles in this 
country. Shoulder braces, drawers, shirts and gloves, are made 
of it. A tanner writes : " I know of no country where this busi- 
ness exists in which females are employed, unless perhaps in some 
of the smaller German States, where female service is not deemed 
incompatible with the services of the ox and the horse. The 
tanning business in all its departments is laborious and offensive, 
and although not unhealthy, is dirty and disagreeable, requiring 
a great amount of muscular power. I know of no employment 
less congenial to the taste of women, or less suited to their ele- 
vation. Morocco is polished by hand, and in some places is done 
by women. A tanner writes : " It requires strong and healthy 
men to perform any part of a tanner's trade, and they do not 
get very highly paid at that. The business is decidedly dirty, 
and oftentimes very disagreeable, not fit for women in any par- 
ticular. In order to conduct the business successfully, one needs 
to be located by a good stream of water, or where it can be easily 
obtained, plenty of bark, and not far from market." Among the 
Cossacks, some women are employed in tanning. 

12 



266 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

284. Trunks. A trunk maker said he thought women could 
not well put the tacks in trunks, because the trunks are first put 
together, and are heavy lifting ; but I think it could be done by 
them. Putting the linings in trunks could certainly be done by 
women. The man referred to said he thought some women are 
employed in a large trunk factory in Newark, because the pro- 
prietors thought they could get their work done cheaper, and he 
hoped they failed, because of their motive. The employment of 
women, he urged, cuts down men's labor, and so all labor is re- 
duced below its worth, just as it is now in England. There a 
woman must neglect her home duties, to help make a living If 
women, he added, were paid at the same rate as men, and so 
there was a fair competition, he would not object to women being 
employed. 

285. Whips. V., of New York, says he and his partner 
have whips manufactured in Westfield, Mass., and some in the 
House of Kefuge, Charlestown. Westfield is the principal man- 
ufacturing place for whips in the United States. The daughters 
of farmers for miles around the town braid lashes. The covers 
are put on the handles by machines attended by girls. That part 
is usually done in factories. The part called buttons is also made 
by girls, and done by hand. Girls can earn from $3 to $5 a 
week. They receive about three fourths the price paid men, be- 
cause the work is not so laborious. It requires from three to 
nine months to learn, according to the skill of the person. They 
are paid what they can earn while learning. They have been 
able to keep their hands employed all the year, but fear they 
cannot this winter (1860). In 1857, there were probably but 
one half the working class able to obtain employment. The 
prospect for work in this line is better than in most others, for 
the whip market has increased twofold in the last ten years, and 
is likely to extend. The work done at home is piece work, and 
that done in shops is usually so. The business suffers in hard 
times, for people then think they can dispense with whips. V. 
said the Philadelphians and Yankees have different views in re- 
gard to woman's labor. The Yankees know they can get it 
done cheaper by women, and the Philadelphians tnink they can- 
not get it so well done by women. The American Whip Com- 
pany write " they employ eighty females ; about one half are 
American, and one half Irish. Women are employed in any de- 
partment where they can labor with propriety and advantage. 
The prospect is that the business will always continue as good as 
now. All seasons answer equally well for the work. During 
working hours, one of the women often reads aloud for the benefit 
of the others in the room. Board, $2 per week." " The reason 



WHALEBONE WORKERS. 267 

why women are employed at making whips is, the work being 
light, they can do as much as a man, and competition compels 
the employer to get his work done for the lowestVages." P. & 
S., in Philadelphia, employ some girls to braid lashes. It re- 
quires about six weeks to learn. Some earn $3, and some $4 a 
week, working from nine to ten hours, but are paid by the dozen. 
All their girls are Americans, as are the generality of females in 
this business. " In London," says Mayhew, " the cane sellers are 
sometimes about two hundred in number, on a fine Sunday, in 
the summer, and on no day are there fewer than thirty sellers of 
whips in the streets, and sometimes — not often — one hundred." 
The branch of finishing in whip making has been entered by 
women in Birmingham, England, and created some opposition. 
Sellers of large, coarse whips usually frequent market houses 
— those with fancy whips stand on the sidewalks. 



WHALEBONE WORKERS. 

285. Whalebone Workers. The natural color of whale- 
bone is nearly the same as gray limestone rock. The black 
ones we buy are colored. Whalebone is exported from New 
York. About four hundred American vessels are employed in 
whaling, aud about ten thousand men. Enough whalebone can 
be prepared in one factory to supply the whole United States, 
I was told by one of the proprietors of a whalebone factory. He 
paid a boy $2 a week for tying up whalebone for parasols and 
umbrellas (which work could be done by a girl). Small holes 
are punched by machinery in the ends of bones to be used for 
stays, A woman runs a thread through, and ties them in bunches. 
She is paid one cent a bunch, and, as she ties up five hundred or 
six hundred a week, earns $5 or $6. At another factory, I was 
told they employ girls and women in tying up some whalebones 
and stringing others. They sit while at work, and are paid by 
the week, working ten hours a day. They keep their hands all 
* the year, but are most busy in the fall. Tying up whalebones 
looks simple, but it requires practice to become expert, and re- 
quires discrimination to select the indifferent from the salable. 
The woman we saw earns $4.50, but she has been at it several 
years, and is very expert. Women seldom earn more than $3. 
Girls might polish the bones — a something I saw a boy doing. 



268 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



BEUSH MANUFACTURERS. 

287. Brush Manufacturers. Women have from the 
earliest period been employed in making brushes. In France, 
women are employed in preparing bristles for brushes, bleaching, 
washing, straightening, and assorting them. If they are so em- 
ployed in this country it is at Lansingburg, N. Y. Indeed the 
finer bristles are all imported. The process of preparing bristles 
is simple, merely washing them and placing them in a preparation 
of sulphur to bleach them. " The great art in making brushes 
for artists is so to arrange the hairs that their ends may be made 
to converge to a fine point when moistened and drawn between 
the lips ; and it is said that females are more successful than men 
in preparing the small and delicate pencils." In shaving brushes 
the bristles must be so arranged as to form a cone. This requires 
skill, and commands handsome wages. A large number of bristles 
are imported from Germany, Russia, and a considerable quantity 
from France ; yet the United States furnish some. We think 
the owners of pork houses, and farmers in the Southern and 
Western States, would find the saving of bristles to justify the 
trouble of doing so, as they bring a good price. In this country, 
the process in making finer brushes, called drawing, is mostly 
done by women. The heavier kind of brushes is seldom made by 
women. Persons working in horn, wood, whalebone, ivory, gutta 
percha, pearl, &c, prepare the handles. Few if any brush makers 
have them prepared in their own establishments. I called on a 
brush maker whose manufactory is in Boston. The clerk says 
they never have any difficulty in getting plenty of good hands. 
They work by the piece. He says, if you advertise there, you are 
sure to have hundreds of applicants, many of whom are already 
in business, but hope to get better wages for the same amount of 
work, or less work for the same wages. A manufacturer told me 
that he employs boys, who do piecework and earn from $5 to $10 
a week, but thinks he will employ girls, as he could get drawers 
for from $3 to $4 per week. The girls sit while at this work. 
H., a maker of tooth, nail, and hair brushes, told me his is the 
only tooth brush manufactory in the United States. His girls 
looked clean and orderly, and had intelligent faces. Those work- 
ing in the house were of Irish extraction — those who worked at 
home, Americans. Most of them attend night school. H. finds 
his girls more careless about their work Monday morning than at 
any other time. He attributes it to their talking and thinking 
of what they saw and heard the day before. Those that sew well 



IVORY CUTTERS AJSD WORKERS. 269 

he finds work best for him. (I expect that principle generally 
holds good — those that work well in one business are likely to in 
another, because they are industrious and give their attention to 
it.) If the work is not well done, he takes it out and makes them 
do it over. As it is done hj the piece, it of course is their own 
loss. They engage in trepanning, wiring, and trimming brushes. 
The trepanning and wiring are done altogether by women in Eng- 
land. They are paid by the piece, those wiring and trepanning 
earn from $3 to $4. The lady that trims earns 16 a week. The 
work is very neat and well adapted to women. It requires about 
three months to learn. Women are paid something while learn- 
ing. Care and nicety must be used to fill the little cavities in 
the brush with bristles closely and firmly. The business is not 
good, on account of competition in the manufacture with European 
countries, where labor is cheaper. Women cannot polish the 
ivory well, as it is done by hand and is very hard work. Women 
are superior in the branches pursued by them. §2.50 is the 
usually price paid by workwomen for board in New York. A 
brush maker in Philadelphia writes : " I pay from eighteen to 
twenty cents per thousand holes. No men employed by us in this 
branch. Boys spend four or five years at this trade. Girls spend 
six months learning one branch. The prospect for more work of 
this kind is poor. Our wmen are all Americans, and work the 
year round. Women are superior in their branch." P. & M. 
employ girls to make ostrich feather dusters, and they earn from 
$4 to $6 per week. They have had employment all the year. 
While at work the girls can sit or stand, as^they please. Their 
girls also paint the handles. A manufacturer of ostrich feather 
dusters told me, he pays girls from $2 to $3 a week for coloring 
and putting the feathers in handles. They can always get enough 
of hands. The girls work in daylight only. 



IVORY CUTTEKS AND WORKERS. 

288. Ivory Workers. Ivory is generally turned in a 
lathe — a machine that differs some in size and shape, according to 
the material worked. Ivory, wood, and metal can be cut by it 
into almost any shape. The ivory nut is now much used as a 
substitute for animal ivory. In a store for the sale of ivory 
goods, the lady in attendance told me some of their articles are 
imported from Germany, and some they have made. In Germany, 



270 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

some women are employed in ivory carving. The lady thought 
it could not be done to any extent in this country, because labor 
is so high. (But if men can afford to do it, pray, why cannot 
women ?) The carving is done with steel instruments, and re- 
quires considerable strength. " Barbara Helena Lange, of Ger- 
many, earned celebrity in the seventeenth century, by engraving 
on copper, and carving figures in ivory and alabaster." "Bar- 
bara Julia Preisler was skilled in various branches of art ; could 
model in wax, and work in ivory and alabaster, and added paint- 
ing and copper engraving to the list of her accomplishments." 
H. & F. have four or five girls to count and pack their ivory 
goods, but none to polish. An ivory worker in Providence 
writes : " Women are employed in carving and turning in Russia, 
and carving in England. I can say for myself, that I have known 
many women to transact the business equal to the smartest in the 
trade in England, when the husband is deceased, and the widow 
has been left to support a large family, and they have never failed 
to do so creditably. I know of but two in this country, one in 
Providence, R. I. ; the other in Westfield, Mass. They earn 
from $4 to $6 a week. The labor is light for women, and they 
could earn the same -N as men. Carving could be learned in six 
months, turning in one year. To be able to superintend, two 
years' practice is required. The prospect for employment is not 
flattering. In this country, women work eight hours ; men, ten. 
In England, France, and Scotland, they work eleven hours. In 
New York, principals could employ twenty-five carvers and one 
hundred turners, and I can see no objection to employing women. 
Women excel in the business, if to their taste. Large cities or 
manufacturing districts are the best localities. They must have 
cultivated minds, or they are not suitable for the business, as it is 
necessary to invent and execute new styles and patterns." In 
Connecticut, some hundreds of families labor in the ivory comb 
manufactories, and are paid per week $4.50, and by the piece 
earn from $5 to $6 a week. An ivory turner in Essex, Conn., 
writes : " I usually employ two girls ; one packing goods, the 
other on fancy turning. They earn from $10 to $20 per month. 
My help consists mostly of men. The work is very healthy. It 
is piece work. The girls earn $1 per day of ten hours. They 
are paid by the piece, the same price as men, and earn as much. 
A learner receives $1 per week and board. A woman can do 
nearly as much as a man after working one year or more. The 
work is very clean and easy. A girl to succeed should be active, 
intelligent, and ingenious." A gentleman who has ornaments 
made of vegetable ivory, told me he could hire Germans to turn 
them for him at from seventy-five cents to $1 a day. 



COMBS PIANO KEYS. 271 

289. Combs. The comb is an article of primitive date, 
and has been frequently found in use among nations when first 
visited by civilized men. Madame de B. told me she had fre- 
quently seen women in Europe, making, mending, and polishing 
combs of tortoise shell, boDe, and ivory. In Leominster, in 
1853, 264 men were employed in the comb factory, at an average 
of $7 per week, board $2.50 — women at an average of S3 a week, 
board $1.50. A firm in Lancaster, Perm., write : " We employ 
seven women, because they are better adapted to the work. They 
are paid by the week, from $2 to $3.50, and work ten hours a 
day. They do not perform the same kind of work as men. Boys 
are apprentices until twenty-one years of age — females spend but 
a few weeks learning. All seasons are alike. Women do the 
light work best. Board, $1.25." Some manufacturers of ivory 
combs write : k ' Our establishment, which has been in operation 
over thirty years, formerly gave employment to a large number 
of female operatives; but of late years, so many labor-saving 
machines have been introduced, that the number employed is 
very small. At present, less than a dozen women are engaged in 
our factory, while we employ some forty men. We expect all who 
are employed by us to work eleven hours each day, except Satur- 
days during the winter, when we close before sundown. Most 
of our girls work by the piece, and earn from 70 cents to $1 per 
day. To the others we pay $4 per week. The time required to 
learn the business varies with the character of the work — in some 
cases two months, in others not more than one week. The only 
qualifications needed are carefulness, activity, and common sense. 
The work is light, and not particularly unhealthy. The only 
reason why it should be unhealthy at all, is its sedentary nature. 
Board, from $1.75 to $2 per week. We have uniformly, since 
the commencement of our business, refused to employ any but 
American girls of known good moral character. There have 
been few or none of them that have not possessed a good com- 
mon-school education, and some of them have enjoyed and well 
improved the advantages of such schools as those at South Had- 
ley, Pittsfield, and New Haven. It is a source of gratification 
and pride to us, that we are able at present to call to mind no 
less than seven of our operatives who have married clergymen ; 
one is now a missionary at the Sandwich Islands, and numbers 
of them are respected and useful members of society." A manu- 
facturer of horn or bone combs writes : " The part assigned to 
women is the staining and the bending or shaping of the comb. 
The business is healthy." 

290. Piano Keys. I cannot learn of any women being 
employed in sawing piano keys, but I think they could do it, if 



272 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

they were properly instructed, and they certainly could polish 
them. The turning of the ivory in the sun to bleach is usually 
performed by a boy, and occupies several hours a day. The 
assorting of piano keys and putting them in small paper boxes 
could certainly be performed by women, but I was told it requires 
considerable experience and judgment. The sharps are made of 
ebony, sawed by circular wheels moved by steam. When large 
blocks have been sawed into smaller pieces, women could then 
saw them into keys. It would only require care. The noise of the 
machinery and the black dust flying might be disagreeable at 
first. A manufacturer of piano keys writes: " No women are 
employed in the piano key department of our business, and none 
are employed by other manufacturers, to our knowledge. We 
suppose the reason is, that most of the labor in this department 
is either quite severe or dirty, wet, and unpleasant. Assorting 
and matching the ivory requires so long a time to learn, that we 
cannot afford to hire any person for less than two years. Girls 
are generally unwilling to engage to remain so long, especially 
if they are at an age when their judgment and discretion make 
their services really valuable." A Massachusetts manufacturer 
of piano forte, melodeon, and organ keys writes : " I employ a 
lady bookkeeper, but my business in the manufacture of keys for 
musical instruments is such that it requires men alone, although 
the work is very light and clean." 

291. Rules. The materials for rules are ivory and wood. 
The prices of rules have fallen during the last few years — so 
the profits are less. A rule manufacturer in Vermont writes: 
"We employ women graduating rules by machinery and stamp- 
ing on the figures. We pay 7 cents per hour. Women are 
paid proportionately while learning. Common sense and a 
slight knowledge of arithmetic are the only qualifications needed. 
They work all the year, ten hours a day. All are American. 
Women are quite as rapid as men, and, in application, better." 
A manufacturer in Connecticut writes : " I employ but one 
woman, and she takes the work home. It is paid for by the 
piece. There are many parts suitable for women, but it is more 
profitable to employ men. The great demand for female labor in 
the domestic employments in this section of the country is becom- 
ing intolerable, on account of the general desire to obtain employ- 
ment in the factories." The machines are small and easily worked, 
for making lines and figures on rules. The rivets of rules might, 
I think, be inserted by women. I was told, men employed in 
working at rule manufacture are paid $8, and some $9 a week. 
The ruler stands while at work. 



PEARL AND TORTOISE-SHELL WORKERS. 273 



PEAEL WORKERS. 

292. Pearl Workers. At S.'s, we saw a man grind- 
ing the outer and rougher coat off of pearl shells. It requires 
some strength, as it is done on a stone wheel moved by steam, 
the shell being kept in its place by a wooden rod held on it. It 
is wet and dirty work. The water is cold, too, even in winter, 
for warm water would soon become cold on account of the rapid 
motion of the wheel ; and it would not do to heat the pearl, as it 
would cause it to split. The polishing was done on a wheel cov- 
ered with leather, and could as well be done by a girl as a boy. 
S. had never known women to work in pearl, except to make 
paper cutters, and then only in Germany. The inlaying of pearl 
is in some places done by women. A worker in pearl writes me : 
" The pearl button branch is separate from the pearl shell work. 
In the first, females are employed ; in the latter, they are not, as 
it is unhealthy and laborious. In Birmingham, England, where 
pearl buttons are almost exclusively manufactured, upward of 
two thousand hands are employed. Pearl buttons are made in 
Newark and Philadelphia." A manufacturer of pearl buttons in 
Philadelphia writes : " I employ women in finishing, and pay 
from $2 to $3 a week. It requires from one to three weeks to 
learn. The prospect of the business increasing is good. The 
work is regular, and the hours ten a day. I employ women be- 
cause they are cheaper." To polish pearl buttons is very simple — 
merely placing the button in a pair of tongs, and holding it against 
three revolving wheels successively. The carving of pearl is wrist 
work, and S. thought women have not sufficient strength in their 
wrists to do it ; but I think many have. 



TORTOISE-SHELL WORKERS. 

293. Tortoise-Shell Workers. Shell is made into 
clock cases, cigar cases, card cases, writing desks, and other such 
articles, but is most used for combs. In Brooklyn, a manufac- 
turer of shell combs told me they had several times thought of 
employing women, Gutta percha and vulcanized india rubber 
have become, to some extent, a substitute for tortoise shell. On 
tortoise-shell combs the light carving might be done by women ; 
12* 



274: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

the heavy cutting requires more strength. The sawing out of the 
figures is suitable for women. The finishing could also be done 
by them. To learn the finishing would not require a person of 
ordinary talent more than a week, and either of the other pro- 
cesses probably not more than six or eight weeks. Workers 
could earn from $6 to $7 a week, if they could have constant 
employment. The business is very dependent on fashion. P. & 
B. used to employ girls in rounding the teeth of shell side-combs, 
and paid each $4 ; but gutta-percha combs have done away with 
shell ones. A worker of shell combs told me he had employed 
girls, paying some by the piece and some by the week. They 
earned from $3 to $6 per week. It requires about six months to 
learn, carving and sawing — polishing, not so long. Care, judg- 
ment, and a good idea of form and proportion, are necessary. 
The business is now very dull. The style of carving on combs is 
very diiferent from that worn a few years back. It is now of a 
heavier kind, and the work not so suitable for women. 



GUM ELASTIC MANUFACTUEE. 

294. Gum Elastic Manufacture. " In nearly 
all the manufacturing branches of this business, females are 
employed. After the articles are moulded, females join them ; 
also paint the toys, pack the combs in boxes, &c. In 
most establishments they are employed the whole year, while 
some only retain a small proportion during the dull season, which 
is in the winter. All are paid by the piece, varying from $4 to 
$7 per week. They learn very quickly, and are paid for what 
they do as soon as they commence, although it takes six months 
or one year's practice to equal the best workers. The manufac- 
turing is almost exclusively confined to the country, and, as a 
class, the women are in no way exceptionable, many of them being 
considerably cultivated. There are plenty found to learn the busi- 
ness, and it gives employment to several thousand." In Massachu- 
setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and 
New Jersey, 1,825 males and 1,058 females were employed, in the 
year ending June 1st, 1860, in making india rubber goods. I 
talked with one of the most extensive gum elastic manufacturers in 
the United States, for the purpose of gaining some idea of the num- 
ber of female operatives in that department, their wages, if the 
occupation is unhealthy, &c. This manufacturer has realized 
millions from his business ; and, after repeated efforts to learn 



GUM ELASTIC MANUFACTURE. 275 

how his women were paid, I succeeded in learning that those who 
work out of the house are paid by the piece, and earn only from 
$2 to S3 a week, working from dawn until midnight. Some 
worked in the establishment, going at 7.30 A. m., and working 
until 6 p. m., receiving about the same wages. They were em- 
ployed in making suspenders. More women are employed in 
the shoe department than any other. The hard india rubber 
goods are labelled and packed by women in some manufactories ; 
but most of the making is done by men. At a city in Western 
Massachusetts, ten girls were employed by one man, at an average 
of $2.50 each per week, to mend imperfections in india rubber 
goods. I went to Harlem, and was permitted with my attendant 
to go through the manufactory and see the process of making up 
a variety of india rubber goods. Some of the girls are paid by 
the piece, and some by the week. They earn from $4 to $6 a 
week. It does not require a girl of good sense more than from 
one to four weeks to learn. I inquired of one of the proprietors 
and three of the foremen, if they thought it unhealthy. The 
proprietor said, not ; but the foremen were not very positive 
in their assertions. I inquired of a girl in the sewing room. 
She said she found it so in the cementing room, and had secured 
work in the sewing room on that account. She attributed it to 
the evaporation of the camphene, and the flying of the powder, 
made of pulverized soapstone and flour. The odor, no doubt , is 
very disagreeable at first to most workers. One foreman said he 
thought it would not be well for a consumptive person to confine 
him or herself to that kind of work. One of the proprietors 
said, if a nice, genteel-looking girl comes along, they will take 
her as a learner, even if they do not wish a learner, that they 
may have good hands when they need them. They have a great 
many applications. They used to take learners, and permit old 
hands to instruct them, paying them for the time spent in doing 
so. They are most busy in the spring and fall, but have some- 
thing to do all the year. Those in the first cementing room 
were working at large tables, and stood. They were paid fifteen 
cents for cementing the seams of a gentleman's coat, and some at 
that work make $1 a day of ten hours' labor. Most of the girls 
prefer to stand while at work. They were very neat, quiet, and 
good looking. In the second room we saw women making rubber 
cushions, small tubes, &c. One of the girls making tubes said she 
was paid by the hundred, and could not earn $1 a day. All in 
the second and third room sat. In the third room the ladies were 
finishing off coats, sewing in the sleeves, binding, and putting on 
buttons. Most india rubber factories are in New Jersey. There 
are none in the West or South. 



276 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



295. Men's Clothing. The Eubber Clothing Company at 
Beverly, Mass., " employ from seventy-five to one hundred women. 
They report the work as being light, and therefore requiring 
nimble fingers. Their girls are paid both by the piece and week, 
and earn from $3 to $6 per week, usually working ten hours a 
day. One half are American. Women are paid as well as men 
in this branch. It requires four weeks to learn. Prospect of 
future work is good. Activity and intelligence are needed. The 
work is very easy, and is given at all seasons. Girls are usually 
not so steady at work as men. Board, $2 per week." The 
superintendent of the American Hard Rubber Company writes : 
" We employ ten women in making hard india rubber goods. 
We prefer them on account of their small fingers. It is piece 
work, and women are paid from $4 to $6 per week, ten hours a 
day. Our women could not do the work of men, who have to be 
mechanics, having learned a trade. Men receive about thirty- 
three cents more per day than women. The time required for 
men to learn our business it is impossible to answer. Women 
can learn sufficient in four weeks to earn seventy-five cents per 
day. Carefulness and nimble fingers are necessary. The busi- 
ness is new, but the prospects for the future good as could be 
counted upon in any ordinary business. The business is not 
sufficiently extended to furnish a particular set of people depend- 
ing upon it with labor. Some of our women are quite intelligent 
and refined. There is a good library connected with the factory, 
and on Sunday they have ready access to church. 7 ' 

296. Shoes. The application of india rubber to the mak- 
ing of boots and shoes originated in the United States. B. & S. 
" employ seventy-five girls, who earn from $3 to $6 a week. They 
are employed all the year, and it is not unhealthy." The busi- 
ness has been on the decrease for two years. The treasurer of 
the Boston Shoe Co. informs me : " The company employ about 
seventy-five women, who work by the piece. The employment is 
not unhealthy. Average wages from seventy-five cents to $1.25 
per day, of eight or ten hours. Our women earn full as much as 
men, in comparison with the work done. Three fourths are 
American. A smart girl will learn in a couple of weeks to make 
from fifty to seventy-five cents per day ; in two or three months, 
she can earn full wges. The prospect of future employment is 
fair. The fall of the year is the most busy season. Good board, 
$2 per week." 

297. Toys. The New York Eubber Co. write : " We em- 
ploy women in making and ornamenting toys. Little of the 
work is done in other countries. The girls earn from $3 to $8 
per week, but are paid by the piece. Men and women do not 



HAIR DRESSERS. 277 

perform the same kind of work. In a few weeks learners earn 
$3 ; in a few months, $5 or $6. They have work at all seasons. 
The work is pleasant. Board, $2." 



GITTTA PERCHA MANUFACTURE. 

298. Gutta Percha Manufacture. A manufacturer 
of gutta-percha goods told me that the firm to which he belongs 
employ twenty-five girls. One of their girls earns $1 a day, 
making handles. The others close the seams of coats, and other 
articles of dress, with cement. Some work by the piece, and some 
by the week. When by the week, they are paid $3.50 and $4; 
and those by the piece earn about the same. He thinks, if it is 
unhealthy, it is because the sulphur used opens the pores and ren- 
ders the person liable to take cold. I visited a gutta-percha 
comb manufactory. The girls receive $2 a week, while learning. 
They can learn in a few days. They polish and pack the combs. 
They work ten hours a day, and receive $4. Few of them get 
$4.50. The employer thinks there may be more work in that 
line hereafter. A woman acquainted with machinery could super- 
intend the machine that cuts the teeth of the comb. Rounding 
the teeth is done by men, but could be performed by women. I 
was told there is a manufactory at Stratton, L. L, where seventy 
women are employed. 



HAIR WORKERS. 

299. Artists. The making of hair ornaments is a dis- 
tinct branch of labor. Some very beautiful and ingenious 
pieces of workmanship have been executed. Bracelets, earrings, 
breastpins, and guards are the most common articles. The work 
is nicely adapted to the nimble fingers of women, whether en- 
gaged in it for pastime or profit. A foreign lady, that does orna- 
mental hair work, told me that it is a right profitable business to 
one that can do it well, but American women have not patience 
to learn to do it in a superior manner. A hair jeweller in Phil- 
adelphia told me he employs six girls — all Americans, and he 
thinks they do better than foreigners. He pays a girl seventy- 
five cents a week, for three or four weeks. By that time she has 



278 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

learned enough to earn $3 or $4 a week. Formerly he required 
a girl to spend two years learning, and paid her nothing during 
the time. He mentioned one firm that required three years' ap- 
prenticeship. But the girls often became discouraged, and went 
at something else. Now the business is not so much of a secret. 
He has now and then paid as high as $12 a week, for a hand that 
was very ingenious and successful. They pay high for their de- 
signs. The gentleman had paid $50, the week previous, for a de- 
sign. His girls all work in the establishment, and spend about 
nine hours at their work. It is done altogether by hand. The 
only disadvantage attending it is the confinement that pertains 
to it, or any other employment of that kind. An artist on Fifth 
street gives work out of the house. The average rate of wages 
he pays is $4 a week. Hair artists, when employed by the week, 
receive from $4 to $5. At S.'s, New York, they pay a good hand 
from $4 to $5 a week, ten hours a day. A person of good abili- 
ties can learn most of the patterns in three weeks. An orna- 
mental hair worker told me she charges fifty cents a lesson of an 
hour. A lady was taking lessons who had recently married a 
jeweller, and was going to Louisiana to live. A good price can 
be got for such work in the South, for Southerners have had all 
such work done in the North. A German, who made very pretty 
ornamental hair work in New York, told me he charges from $25 
to $50 for teaching the art — those that wish to learn in a short 
time, and so require much of his attention, pay $100. It can be 
very well learned in six months. He pays $10 a week to good 
hands. The work is the same at all seasons. Strong eyes, nim- 
ble fingers, and a clear head are the essentials for a learner. 

300. Dressers. The business of a barber was performed 
by females among the Romans, about the time of the Christian 
era. I have read that there are now women barbers in Paris, 
Normandy, England, and Western Africa. In the reign of Louis 
XIV. it was not unusual for ladies of rank and wealth to dress 
the whiskers of their favorite friends. Both men and women are 
engaged in the United States in the business of dressing ladies' 
hair. We think women most suitable for it, and should be pa- 
tronized to the exclusion of men. The business requires practice 
and taste. Some ladies of wealth have their dressing maids to 
learn the art and perform that office of the toilet. Most hair 
dressers charge 50 cents to $1.50 for dressing the hair. The 
price is regulated by the style in which it is done and the repu- 
tation of the dresser. The demands for a hair dresser are some- 
times such, in a fashionable season, that a lady must have her 
hair dressed as early as noon, to wear to the opera at 8, or to a 
party at 10 p. m. Mrs. W., New York, charges 50 cents for 



HAIR DRESSEKS. 279 

dressing Lair, 75 for shampooing and dressing, and $1 if she 
sends out. She never sends any one out to dress hair where she 
is not acquainted. She thinks there are about 200 hair dressers 
in New York. At an establishment in Broadway they give in- 
struction in hair dressing — price, $1 a lesson. A person of ordi- 
nary abilities can learn to dress hair plainly in three or four 
lessons. C. says he thinks more women could find employment 
as hair dressers in New York ; but I think, from the number of 
signs I saw, no demand can exist. He thinks it strange that they 
do not make engagements by the week, as they do in the cities of 
the old countries, where there are 200 or 300 in every large city 
that go out daily to the houses of their customers. I have since 
learned that there are some in New York that do. Mrs. Gr. goes 
out by the week, and receives $3 per week. She makes such en- 
gagements for the morning only, as she is likely to be called in 
the afternoon to prepare ladies for parties. From the middle of 
June until September she is at Saratoga. C, had a woman four 
years learning the styles of dressing and making up hair. The 
third year he paid her $4 a week, and the fourth year $5 a week. 
He says it requires so long to learn it that women generally get 
discouraged and go at something else. Women employed by the 
week to dress hair receive from $4 to 15. A lady told me she 
charges 50 cents a lesson, and a person can learn in from fourteen 
to twenty lessons. Two years' time is generally given to learn 
hair work in all its branches, weaving, mounting, &c. It takes 
time and capital to establish a business for one's self, as hair is a 
costly article. I saw one lady who teaches hair dressing for $10. 
A young woman told me it requires two weeks of constant prac- 
tice to become a hair dresser. Nearly everything at it is done in 
winter. Practice makes perfect The best plan is to get regu- 
lar customers, and go to their houses every day, including Sun- 
day, for which it is usual to charge from $1.50 a week up, for 
one head. She charges 50 cents a lesson. Some chambermaids 
at hotels take a few lessons, to enable them to dress hair plainly. 
For shampooing, most of which is done in summer, she charges 
50 cents ; for braiding front hair, 50 cents ; and with the back 
(hair, 75 cents. Miss S. told me many female hair dressers board 
'with the family of the employer, because of being up late at night, 
and receive their board and $10 a month and up. For weaving 
hair her mother pays 6 cents per yard ; for the finer kind, 12 
cents per yard. Her mother earns from $1.75 to $2 per day. 
A person that can weave and make front pieces can get work at 
any time. There are only three months dull time in a city — June, 
July, and August. Some ladies pay a hair dresser $10 a month 
for dressing the hair every day but Sunday, when a separate and 



280 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

higher charge is made. For dressing a bride entirely, $5 is 
charged. One needs taste and ability to please ; at any rate, one 
must be civil and obliging. Fashionable watering places present 
the best openings. Saratoga and Newport present favorable ones, 
at the first of which there is but one permanent hair dresser. D., 
hair dresser and wig maker, requires learners to be bound for four 
years. The first year he gives a girl her board, lodging, wash- 
ing, and $4 a month. The next year he gives the same, with an 
increase of $1 a month; and so continues that increase each suc- 
ceeding year until the apprenticeship expires. He gives to 
journeywomen their dinner, supper, and $4 a week. The busi- 
ness is not confined to regular hours, on account of hair dressing, 
which is done mostly in the evening. He charges 50 cents for 
dressing a lady's hair at his rooms, and $1 at her house. A 
Frenchman, under Fifth Avenue Hotel, pays $5 a week to a girl 
who receives the pay of his customers. She is there at 8, and 
can leave at dark. He charges 75 cents a head at the saloon, 
9 and at the ladies' residences the same. He has rooms fitted up, 
and has many customers from the hotel. He employs three girls, 
paying them one half of what they earn. He keeps but one 
there constantly. The other two live near, and when he needs 
their services he sends for them. He is going to teach hair 
dressing, and chai'ge $1 a lesson ; forty or fifty (?) lessons are 
usually taken, according to the extent it is learned. Mrs. B. told 
me men teach ladies wig making, but ladies give instruction mostly 
in hair dressing to those of their own sex. It is usual to pay 
learners something after a few months' or a year's practice. Those 
that work for others get most to do in winter. Those that have 
establishments of their own can of course work all the time. 
Most employers pay by the week. Mrs. Dall has the following 
sentence in her " Woman's Right to Labor : " "I think there is 
room in Boston for an establishment from which a woman could 
come to a sickroom, to shave the heated head or cut the beard 
of the dying ; a place where women's and children's wants could 
be attended to, without necessary contact with men." 

301. Dyers. B. will want some nice women to dye ladies* 
hair. Now he has it done by men. He wants but one at first 
— one who has worked with hair — for instance, a lady's maid 
would be most suitable. She must not be afraid to color her 
hands, or to work. When not working at that, she will spend 
her time making wigs. He will teach her how to do both, and, 
if she proves herself competent, he will give her fair wages. 
For two or three weeks he will board her and pay all her ex- 
penses. Then he will pay her $5 a week. He will take another 
when needed, and so increase the number as he has occasion. 



HAIR MERCHANTS. 281 

He employs some women to put up hair dye and perfumery, and 
pays $3 a week. 

802, Growers. Dr. Gardner says: "At Caen, in France, 
there is a market, whither young girls resort, and stand hour 
after hour, with their flowing hair, rich and glossy, deriving 
additional lustre from the contrast with their naked shoulders. 
This is the resort of the merchant barbers, some of whom come 
even from England. The merchants pass along among them, ex- 
amine the color, texture, evenness, and other qualities of the 
beautiful fleece, haggle for a sou, and finally buy. The hair 
then, after being cut as closely as possible to the head, is weighed 
and paid for, and the girl goes home to let another suit grow out 
for shearing time." 

303. Manufacturers. The woman at S.'s says they have 
constant application to receive hands, and have to turn a great 
many away. They have trouble to get good workers. The 
girls will not take time to learn to do their work perfectly. 
They ought to spend some years learning. At C.'s, they employ 
a number of women in making wigs, scalps, and toupees, who can 
earn from $4 to $5 a week. It requires six months to learn that 
branch. At another place I was told it requires but a few weeks 
to learn to make wigs only. Workers at it earn from $3 to $5. 
This branch of work is profitable. Mrs. R. told me that those 
who make wigs can be at work all the year, but hair dressing is 
mostly confined to seasons. In different stores, the wages of em- 
ployees vary. It is well for a person to learn all the branches, 
if she has time, so that if one fails her, she can take up another. 
Her work is mostly done in the country — no doubt because she 
can get it done more cheaply. Weaving hair pays best. It is 
paid for by the yard, and generally done at the home of the 
worker. If done in the house, it is most likely to be paid for by 
the week, and ten — the usual number of working hours — spent at 
it. American women form a majority in the business. It is a 
good business, for a small capital, when living near the import- 
ers. It is extending West and South. A hair manufacturer in 
Rochester writes : " The occupation is permanent, and my em- 
ployees have work at all seasons. There is a demand in many 
places for workers in this line." A hair manufacturer in New- 
buryport, Massachusetts, who has three women braiding hair for 
jewelry, and making wigs, pays by the day, of ten hours. They 
receive from $3 to $8 per week, and work the same at all seasons. 

304. Merchants. Most of the hair made up in this 
country is bought in France and Italy. The price paid for each 
head of hair ranges from one to five francs, according to its weight 
and beauty. From one of the cyclopaedias we learn, that 200,000 



282 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

pounds of women's hair is annually sold in France ; that the price 
paid for it is usually six cents an ounce." " Whether dark or 
light, the hair purchased by the dealer is so closely scrutinized, 
that he can discriminate between the German and French article 
by the smell alone; nay, he even claims the power, ' when his 
nose is in,' of distinguishing accurately between the English, 
the Welsh, the Irish, and the Scotch commodities." 



WILLOW WAEE. 

305. Willow Ware. Great quantities of willow ware 
have been imported from France, but of late years some atten- 
tion has been paid to the growing of it near Philadelphia. Our 
climate is said to be well adapted to its growth, and the willow 
raised to be of a superior quality. Willow grows in damp 
places. Most basket makers buy the willow, and split it them- 
selves. All the most tasteful and elegant baskets used in this 
country are imported from France. Basket making is one of the 
principal employments engaged in by the blind. It requires 
some strength, but more skill and practice. A basket maker's 
tools can be bought for $5, and last a lifetime. On looking for 
women basket makers in Philadelphia, we found a German widow, 
who could not make herself understood in English, but my com- 
panion conversed with her in German, and learned that she had 
supported herself and son for six years, by making baskets for 
the trade. She buys the willow ready for use at seven cents a 
pound. She sells small round baskets, with covers and handles, 
at $2.25 a dozen. She looked very poor, but clean, and had 
evidently a room to sleep in besides the one we saw, where she 
works and cooks. A German woman, in New York, making 
small /ancy baskets on blocks, told me she could earn from fifty 
cents to $1 per day. Her husband dyes the willow. A German 
woman asked me $1.50 for a basket she had paid fifty cents for 
making — at that rate her profits were considerable. I met a 
German boy with baskets, who said he could make from seventy- 
five cents to $1 a day by his work. His father, mother, and 
sisters also work at the trade. I saw a woman who merely colors 
willow. She could make a comfortable living at it, if she could 
give all her time to it ; but she cannot, as she has two small chil- 
dren, and must give part of her time to them. In Williamsburg, I 
had a long talk with a basket maker. He says it is best for an 



WILLOW WARE. 283 

apprentice to learn basket making of a practical worker who has 
not many hands, and who will give instruction himself. He can 
give the more time to his learners. He sjDent seven years learn- 
ino" the trade in England, It requires knowledge of form to 
make the baskets of a handsome shape. He showed me a book 
giving directions how to proportion baskets. He thinks a right 
smart person might learn the business in two years, when they 
could earn from $10 to $15 a week. The basket makers have a 
society in New York that discourages the work of women in that 
line, by not allowing its members to sell to any store for which a 
woman works. The excuse is, it throws men out of work. Yet 
the man told me that there are probably not more than two 
hundred basket makers in the United States, and that it is a 
good business. He has more work than he can do. (Oh, what 
injustice to woman !) The Dutch, he says, make baskets at a 
lower price than the members of the society, and consequently 
they are discountenanced by the members. Inexperienced or 
careless workers are apt to cut their hands with the willow while 
at work. A woman who sells baskets told me that basket making 
is a poor business now. A man that worked for her during the 
summer said that, working from early in the morning till late at 
night, he could not make more than $4.50 a week, and if his wife 
had not worked out, they could not have made a living. She 
says the duty on willow is high, and transporters ask any price 
they please, as it occupies considerable room, and does not pay 
very well as freight. When American supplies are brought in, it is 
cheaper. The women that supply her do the lighter parts of the 
work ; and their husbands, the heavier. A willow ware manu- 
facturer in Waterbury, Vermont, writes : " The work is light and 
healthy. It is paid for by the piece. Women are paid less, be- 
cause they are not so strong, and can live cheaper. It requires 
about one year to learn the business. Learners are paid by the 
week, about $2. Ingenuity and some taste are needed for a bas- 
ket maker. A great many women might advantageously learn 
the trade, if they would. They can work at it all the year. We 
should like to employ a few girls to learn the trade and make 
baskets, but have been unable to do so yet, as it is very difficult 
finding help enough to do housework in this vicinity." A Ger- 
man, who learned his trade with the basket maker of his Majesty, 
in Dresden, replies to a circular asking information on willow 
work : " Women are employed at this trade at several places in 
Germany. They are paid by the piece. In this country, if they 
are able to finish the work as well as men, they are usually paid 
the same wages. Coarse work can be learned in much less time 
than fine. It is in some places the custom to have five persons 



284 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

to make a basket, each doing a separate part. I think the pros- 
pects for work good. Women can make the finer work quicker 
than men, but men succeed best in making coarse work." 



WOOD WOBE. 

306. Carvers. The word " carver " is rather extensive in 
its application, being applied alike to one who cuts stone, wood, or 
metal. Carvers of stone and metal we treat of elsewhere. The 
art of carving is quite ancient. There are five kinds of wood 
carving : house, ship, toy, furniture, and pattern making ; to 
these we may add the cutting of wooden letters for ornamental 
signs. Pattern making is the reverse of architectural carving : 
the first being in bas relief; the other, alto. Architectural 
carving is mostly done in pine, occasionally in oak. Ship car- 
vers cut figure heads for vessels ; some of this carving is done in 
oak, some in pine. For some kinds of carving the design is 
drawn on paper and cut out; then it is placed on the block, 
which is prepared of a proper thickness, and the outline drawn 
with a pencil. The portions of wood outside the design are then 
cut off with carving implements. The plan of marking the wood 
is not practised by all carvers. It may be that it is used for 
beginners only. Ingenuity in planning and skilful drawing are 
desirable qualifications for a carver. The tools used by carvers 
are very simple, being merely a hammer, and gouges of different 
sizes. When the wood is carved, it is smoothed with sand paper, 
then gilded or painted and varnished. During an apprenticeship, 
the usual sum paid a boy is $2.50 a week the first year, and more 
afterward. A journeyman can usually earn $1.50 or $1.75 a 
day of ten hours. It requires three years to learn the trade. " In 
wood sculpture, all that belongs to its simple ornament might re- 
ceive a special grace from the inspiration of women." We have 
seen architectural and ship carving done by women; and it is 
our belief that almost any and every kind of carving could be 
done by them, if the wood were properly prepared, and they were 
carefully instructed. Some kinds of carving require considerable 
muscular strength. An architectural carver writes : " Our em- 
ployment is healthy. Part of our business is suitable for women, 
but there is not enough in our establishment to keep one con- 
stantly employed. " A carver told me that furniture carving is 
sometimes done by women. Though it is done in harder wood 



CARVERS — KIKDLING- WOOD. 285 

than most other kinds, it does not involve the lifting of heavy 
blocks, like architectural carving. The widow of a ship carver 
carries on the business in New York. Her son told me that 
eight persons could do all the work necessary for that city. There 
are a few ship carvers in Boston and Philadelphia, but none in 
the South or West. (Would not New Orleans present a good 
opening ?) A. told me, a boy in learning ship carving is appren- 
ticed for five or six years. He receives $1.50 a week for the first 
year, then $2, and after that $2.50, but no more. A carver told 
me that he had an Englishman working for him, that showed him 
some work done by his daughter, which was superior. He knows 
the wives of some carvers who finish the work of their husbands 
by rubbing it with sand paper. " Louisa Raldan, of Seville, was 
known as an excellent sculptor in wood." " Anna Maria Sehur- 
mann, of Sweden, carved busts in wood." " Anna Tessala, an 
artist of the Dutch school, was eminent as a skilful carver in 
wood." "Properzia di Rossi, an Italian sculptress, carved on a 
peachstone the crucifixion of our Saviour." Many toys are 
made in Germany by women and children. They are purchased 
very cheaply, we know, from their low prices in this country. 
Mrs. Dall says : " I would direct the attention of young women 
to the Swiss carving cf paper knives, bread plates, salad spoons, 
ornamental figures, jewel boxes, and so on. On account of the 
care required in the transportation, these articles bring large 
prices ; and I feel quite sure that many an idle girl might win a 
pleasant fame through such trifles." Articles might be cut of 
wood, as mementos of some great event or pleasant association. 
The small wooden cages, in which we see canaries for sale, were 
made by women in Germany. There labor is cheaper, and they 
probably receive only two or three cents for a cage, while in this 
country they could not be made for less than a shilling. I saw 
some pretty wooden toys, made in Switzerland by the shepherds 
while watching their flocks, and some which were made by 
women. It is a favorite pastime with them in the evening, when 
the family is gathered around the hearthstone. The small 
carved boards, used for the support of music in pianos, are carved 
by a delicate saw, moving perpendicularly and driven by steam. 
The carver has the pattern marked on the board, and moves it 
under the saw, as the workman does the back of shell combs. 
One species of carving common in Europe is that of saints and 
virgins for small churches. 

307. Kindling Wood. Some little boys putting kin- 
dling wood into bundles told me they are paid fifteen cents a 
hundred bundles, and can do from two hundred and fifty to three 
hundred in a day of ten hours. Most of them take the strings 



f 

286 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

home at night and tie them, to save time in the day. Girls could 
do it, but they would be liable to accident from the carelessness 
of those at work. 

308. Pattern Makers. The wife of a pattern maker 
told me it requires ingenuity, patience, and a knowledge of draw- 
ing to become a pattern maker. C. thought general pattern mak- 
ing would not do for a woman, as it would require planing, cut- 
ting, and turning wood. He said some of the finer parts of pat- 
tern making, as forming models on a small scale for the patent 
office, could be done by a woman who is qualified. It would re- 
quire a knowledge of arithmetical proportions, ability to turn a 
lathe properly, and aptness at catching the ideas of others. A 
gentleman who makes models for the patent office, patterns for 
machinery, steam and gas fittings, &c, writes : " The varnishing 
might be done by women, but in most shops there would not be 
enough to keep one at work all the time." S. told me that a part 
of the -work of pattern making could be done by women, but it 
would be advisable they should have a separate apartment in 
founderies. The variety of ornamental iron work is so great that 
it affords scope for inventive talent. We suppose the business of 
pattern making is not more laborious and is very similar to block 
cutting. If women were prepared for some branches of this busi- 
ness, we doubt not it would prove remunerative and furnish 
steady employment. A pattern maker writes from Hartford : 
" We do our own draughting, but there is considerable done inde- 
pendent of a shop. For such work we pay $2 a day. A knowl- 
edge of geometry and mathematics is a prerequisite." 

309, Rattan Splitters. Formerly, rattan was thrown 
from the ships that landed in New York, as something useless; 
now it sells at from four to nine cents a pound. The centre of 
the rattan is used for hoop skirts. The outside is split off by a 
strange-looking machine. The strips are then shaved thin by 
another machine, for making chair seats and ornamenting buggies. 
They are bleached in a close room with ignited sulphur. The 
refuse is used in some way in the manufacture of gas — also for 
making coarse mats and filling beds. At N.'s factory, I saw girls 
shaving rattan. The work was dusty — one sat, but the others 
stood. The girls had merely to attend to the strips as they ran 
through small machines moved by steam. Each girl received 
fifty cents a day of ten hours, for her services. In Fitchburg, 
Mass., fifty girls are so employed. 

310. Segar Boxes. I called in a segar-box factory where 
the man had four boys at work. The trade requires care, and some 
ability to calculate proportions. The work consists in driving 
small nails, gluing on tape, planing the edges, and similar labor. 



EXPRESS AND OTHER CONVEYANCES, 287 

Women could do it, and I expect do in Germany. If boys from 
ten to fifteen years of age can, why cannot girls ? After two 
months, a boy earns something. Two of the boys had been work- 
ing at the trade two years, and were earning each $3 a week. 
The wood is cedar, and so easily managed. 

311. Turners. I saw the process of wood turning. The 
flying of the chips I thought disagreeable. The trade can be 
learned in three years very well. A boy learning is paid $2.50 
a week, the first year ; the next year, $3 ; the next, increased fifty 
cents more, and so on. A good hand can earn from $1.75 to $2 
a day. Some women do the turning of small wooden articles in 
France, and quite a number are employed in bone and horn turn- 
ing in the old country, which is not so hard. Turning is more 
nearly perfect than most mechanical operations, and consequently 
is employed in all those branches susceptible of its use. In most 
work of this nature the article operated on is stationary, and the 
machinery in motion; but in turning, the article is kept in motion, 
the tool merely pressed upon it by the hand. " There is said to 
be but little difference in the management of turning different 
substances. The principal thing to be attended to is to adapt 
the velocity of the motion to the nature of the material." Rosa 
Bonheur, when a girl, was apprenticed to a dress maker, whose 
husband was a turner. His lathe stood in an adjoining room. 
Rosa delighted to slip away from her work and employ herself at 
the turner's lathe. The making of bone and wooden handles for 
canes and umbrellas could be done by women. Removing the 
surface of the bone is dirty work, and requires some strength. 
The polishing could be done by a girl. The bones are bought at 
glue factories, slaughter houses, &c. In New York, for a small 
new bone, two and a half cents is paid ; for a large one, five cents. 



AGENTS. 



312. Express and other Conveyances. We saw a 

description, a short time ago, by some traveller in Scotland, of ladies 
acting in the capacity of railroad officials ; that is, one sold tickets, 
another collected them, and a third was telegraphing at a station. 
I have been told that some of the ticket agents in Boston are 
women. Women are also employed at some of the railway sta- 
tions in France and Germany, not only to sell tickets, but to 
guard the stations and crossings. I have heard that on those 



288 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

roads where women are switch tenders no accident has ever oc- 
curred. " In Paris, omnibus conductors submit their way bills 
at the transfer offices to women for inspection and ratification. 
Women book you for a seat in the diligence. Women let don- 
keys for rides at Montmorency, and saddle them too." The St. 
Louis Republican mentions that there is one feature about the 
steamer Illinois Belle, of peculiar attractiveness — a lady clerk. 
" Look at her bills of lading, and ' Mary J. Patterson, Clerk,' will 
be seen traced in a delicate and very neat style of chirography. 
A lady clerk on a Western steamer ! It speaks strongly of our 
moral progress." 

313. General Agents. " The walks of business become 
more manifold and extended as the luxuries of civilization and 
the skill of human inventions become more multiplied and more 
widely displayed. Every description of commercial, mechanical, 
and executive business excited and created by the new wants and 
new imaginations of advancing society, will call for the creation 
and extension of new agencies to accomplish the labor which 
they must demand. Thus the variety and number of business 
agencies of every kind must spread out in a constant increase." 
We think there is great imposition practised by some people who 
secure lady agents, and we would advise ladies who can under- 
take an agency to learn something of the parties who would em- 
ploy, and the character of the article, before they engage in any 
undertaking of the kind. A conscientious agent is likely to have 
her interests suffer by a want of honor in those whom she repre- 
sents. With a liberal discount on the retail price of most goods, 
agents might be enabled to make a handsome return for their 
services. I saw a man that manufactures indelible ink, and 
emplo}^s agents to sell it and stencil plates. Pie allows them 
half they receive. One lady in Boston, he said, made $20 one 
day. I think it probable it was in a large school. Ladies, he 
says, will not stay long at it, because it tires them very much to 
go up stairs a great deal. An agent should be one that can talk 
well and has tact and judgment. She should select those parts 
of a city where she will be most likely to meet with success. If 
her article is something for ladies' use, let her go where the best 
dwellings are. If it is something for universal use, if she selects 
but part of a city, the largest quantity will probably be sold in 
those parts most densely populated. A manufacturer of fancy 
soaps and perfumery told me he has employed ladies as agents to 
go around selling those articles. Some have cleared $2 a day. 
He allows one hundred percentage. C, of Boston, manufac- 
turer of needle threaders, wick pullers, and pencil sharpeners, 
offers a liberal discount to agents ; but we presume it would re- 



LXTERAKY, BOOK, AND NEWSPAPER AGENTS. 



289 



quire some Yankee tact to make the sales amount to much. He 
states that some of their agents make from $200 to 1300 a month. 
A stencil cutter in New Haven writes : " I have made tools for 
ladies to do the work of making embroidery stencils. It is neces- 
sary to travel to sell them. One lady may make the work at 
home, and another sell it. One young man, whom I furnished 
with tools, told me that he sold $14 worth of plates in five hours." 
Dr. B. employs twenty ladies making shoulder braces, and pays 
them from $3 to $4 a week. The sewing is done by hand. He 
allows lady agents to have the braces at $1 a pair, which can be 
retailed at $2 a pair. Boarding agencies have become common 
in some of the large cities. Some agents charge the keepers of 
boarding houses a percentage for every boarder sent them, but 
do not charge the applicant. In some offices a person records his 
name and pays $2, for which he has the privileges of the office 
one year. The boarding-house keeper pays a percentage to the 
agent in proportion to the rate of board, without regard to the 
length of time the boarders remain. One agency charges $2 for 
registering a name, and fifty cents for each boarder it secures. 
Some agents in New York have purchased articles of every kind 
on commission for Southerners, receiving a commission from both 
parties. Southern ladies have always preferred New York goods, 
but we suppose they will now wish to patronize their own people. 
314. Iiiterary, Book, and Newspaper Agents. 
By literary agents we mean those that are willing to take the com- 
positions of others, review, correct, prune, polish, mend, and present 
them for publication. We suppose there are not a great many 
ladies, in our country, of sufficient experience in this way to be 
prepared for the business, and probably a smaller number that 
would wish to undertake it. Yet, we think, to a competent and 
reliable lady, it might yield a handsome profit. We know there 
are a few gentlemen so engaged. Proof readers are sometimes 
employed by authors for this purpose, or some literary friend of 
ability does it as an accommodation. Ladies have been agents 
more for magazines than standard works. Indeed, only new 
books claim the privilege of having their merits set forth by 
agents. In towns and cities, ladies could act as agents without 
any difficulty. The business, of course, requires one to be on 
her feet a great deal. In sparsely settled portions of the coun- 
try, it could not be so easily done. Yet we were told in New 
York of an educated lady that wished to earn a livelihood, and, 
not seeing any other way open, she became a book agent. She 
got a horse and buggy, and rode through the country, and was 
very successful. She met with a } 7 oung lady who was very 
anxious to join her. They made a great deal of money, and 
13 



290 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

wrote a book of their travels. There are said to be many book 
and paper agents in New York city — both men and women — and 
they are paid the same percentage. The time of work is con^ 
fined to daylight. If newspaper advertisements for book agents 
can be relied on, we suppose the business would pay well. We 
can scarcely glance over the columns of a newspaper without find- 
ing a call for agents to present the merits of some new work, with 
the promise that, if active and diligent, the individual will clear 
from $30 to $100 per month. It requires judgment, taste, and 
a knowledge of what is popular in the book market. I was told 
by the editor of a ladies' magazine, that he pays his agents fifty 
cents on the dollar, and would be glad to secure the services of 
more lady agents. He stated that one of his lady agents in 
Brooklyn obtained in two weeks twenty subscribers, so making 
$12.50. Some sell books on subscription, but if the books are 
printed, the surest and most speedy way is to deliver the book 
and receive the money, when the individual decides to buy. A 
lady who earns her living as a book and newspaper agent, told 
me that she gets a percentage for the agency of books and 
papers. She has been an agent eight years in New York. Her 
health is poor, and she thinks it is from being out in all kinds of 
weather. She does not go to every house, but calls on one friend, 
who recommends her to another — so that she has as many tG 
visit as she can. She says the qualifications needed are health, 
tact, judgment, courage, pleasing address, perseverance, with 
faith in the wofk, and in God. Ladies are more likely to be well 
received than men, but cannot walk as much. She prefers the 
agency of books, because she then gets the money, gives the 
book, and that is the last of it. But there is a responsibility 
attending the agency of papers. The editor may require pre- 
payment for his magazine. If he is not an honorable man, he 
may discontinue his magazine during the year, and not refund 
what is due to his subscribers. The agent is then blamed, as 
well as the editor, when it may be totally out of her power to 
remedy the matter, or to have prevented it. A lady news agent, 
that has a good location and a small circulating library, told me 
she has occupied the place for several years, and so has regular 
customers. She does it to aid her husband in supporting and 
educating their children, but thinks an individual could earn for 
self alone a comfortable living by keeping a news depot. In the 
large cities of the North are newspaper agents (men) who solicit 
advertisements, for which they receive a commission from editors. 
There is a Miss S. in New York, who makes a very good living 
by obtaining advertisements for the principal city papers. She 
goes to stores and offices, and solicits advertisements of business 



MERCANTILE AGENTS — SEWING MACHINES. 291 

men, for which she receives a percentage from the conductors of 
the papers. 

315. Mercantile Agents, At the office of a mercan- 
tile agency on Broadway, New York, one hundred young men 
are employed in writing. Why could not women do it ? An 
agent who travels for C.'s paper-hanging manufactory, exhibiting 
specimens and getting orders, and has a commission also from 
another house for another kind of business, makes $4,000 a year. 
Ladies were employed writing for one mercantile agency in Bos- 
ton one winter. 

316. Pens. The inventor of Prince's Protean pen thinks 
a lady would do well to act as agent for the sale of his pens. A 
man who was agent made $3,000 a year, but he could not stand 
such exertion over a year. His pen is so constructed as to furnish 
a flow of ink for ten consecutive hours. It is very convenient in 
travelling, on account of the ink being in the case. Physicians 
would find it very convenient. An agent would receive a very 
good allowance ; for instance, a $5 pen she would receive for $3 ; 
one style of $4 pen for $2.50. and another style for $2.25. Mr. 
Snow, of Hartford, an importer of steel pens, offers to pay $2 a 
day to all agents who sell five gross of pens per day, at the list 
of prices furnished, and at the same rate for any larger quantity. 

317. Sewing Machines. H., manufacturer of low- 
priced sowing machines in Newburyport, Massachusetts, desires 
to secure some local and travelling agents. In his circular he 
says : " In order to ascertain who would prove an efficient and 
reliable agent, we have concluded that each applicant shall sell 
thirty days on commission ; and after that time, if he proves as 
before stated, and prefers it to a commission, we will pay him a 
salary of from $30 to $80 a month, according to capabilities, and 
travelling expenses. The commission allowed will be thirty-three 
and one third per cent, on the machines sold." We know noth- 
ing of the merits or demerits of the machine, but give it as a 
criterion by which to judge what sewing-machine agents may ex- 
pect in the way of remuneration. The manufacturer of the 
universal hemmer, which can be attached to any sewing machine, 
retails them at $2.50, but to agents a deduction is made of 
seventy-five cents. (It probably costs ten cents apiece to make 
them.) They require agents to buy what they wish to sell. It 
being a cash business, they have few lady agents. Their agents 
confine themselves to towns, on account of the time that would 
be consumed in travelling through the country. At a manufac- 
tory of children's spring horses, I saw a lady employed to sell 
the horses and make saddles for them. Some she stitched by 
hand, and some quilted and stitched by machine. She got $6 a 
week. 



292 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

318. School Agents. A lady properly qualified might, 
we think, conduct a school agency. As there are few school agen- 
cies in New York, we suppose it must be a business that pays. 
The prejudice that will probably be created by the difficulties in 
our country, will no doubt open the way for the preparation and 
employment of slave State ladies as teachers in their own States, 
and consequently one or more agencies in the South will be 
needed. The terms of one of the best agencies we know of, are 
as follows : " To principals who have their schools registered for 
the purpose of obtaining scholars by making known the terms, 
locality, and advantages of their schools, a fee of $5 is charged ; 
and for each yearly renewal, $2 ; and for the introduction of 
each pupil into a registered school, where the board and tuition 
does not amount to $120 per annum, the fee is $5. When over 
that amount and under $160, $7, &c. For the registration of a 
teacher, in advance, $2. When the situation is obtained, and the 
remuneration is under $1,000, three per cent. If 81,000 and 
over, five per cent. When desired to examine and personally 
assume the responsibility of selecting teachers for important posi- 
tions, an additional fee of from $3 to $5 will be charged." 

319. Telegraph Instruments. A manufacturer of tele- 
graphic instruments in Boston writes : " We do not employ wom- 
en in the mechanical part of our business, but we employ them 
as agents to sell our instruments for medical use. They fit them- 
selves as lecturers by studying the science, and travel about lec- 
turing, giving instruction, selling machines, &c. A very hand- 
some income is derived therefrom." 

320. Washing Machines. At a washing machine 
establishment, I was told they make a deduction of twenty per 
cent, to agents who sell for them ; but to agents who sell for 
themselves and buy six or more, they make a deduction of thirty 
per cent. 



MANITFACTUEEES AND COLGEEES OF 
LADIES' APPAEEL. 

321. Artificial Flowers. As in everything else, the 
price for making artificial flowers is very much regulated by the 
quality and taste displayed. Many flowers made in the United 
States are equal in beauty and delicacy of finish to genuine Paris 
flowers, but they are mostly made by French women, and so are 
in reality French flowers. In France, the preparation of the 



ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS. 293 

materials used in the manufacture, forms several distinct branches 
of trade, and the quality of the flowers depends in a great measure 
upon the care used in the getting up of these materials. The 
modes of coloring flowers are exceedingly various. The materials 
used in the United States are mostly imported from Paris. Some 
stores in New York are confined to the sale of materials for arti- 
ficial florists. There are said to be between sixty and seventy 
flower manufacturers in New York, and about a dozen in Phila- 
delphia. I have been told there are probably 10,000 women and 
children employed in making flowers in New York : I know there 
is great competition in the business. The work is mostly' done 
by women and children, who receive as wages from $1 to $6 per 
week. It requires care and patience, united with good taste and 
much experience, to succeed in this pretty art. There are said to 
be about twenty processes in the making of artificial flowers. The 
employment is one easily affected, consequently fluctuating. The 
New York manufacturers have sold large quantities of American 
flowers to Southern merchants, but have had no orders lately. 
In New York, flower peps are made by men and boys. A man 
at the work said it requires some time to learn to do all the parts. 
Boys, he said, do some parts that girls cannot well do ; but from 
my observation, girls and women could as well do it all as work- 
ers of the other sex. One maker of flower peps told me that at 
one time he employed girls, but found they had not strength 
enough to cut the wires. To cut the wires might be hard, but 
they could get accustomed to it ; at any rate, they could dip the 
pistils and stamens into the coloring matter and place them in 
the frames to dry. H. told me he employs about 600 women 
and 400 men in his business, that of making flowers and dressing 
ornamental feathers. The women earn from $4 to $12 a week; 
the average is from $6 to $7. They only work eight hours in 
winter. There are several distinct branches, and it requires 
longer to learn some than others. The washing and dyeing of 
feathers is done by men, the curling and dressing by women. A 
few of his women are French. He thinks it a business that must 
increase as the country grows older. T. imports all his flowers, 
but employs one girl to mount them, that is, make them into 
clusters, wreaths, &c. Not more than one in eight or ten of 
those employed in the city in making artificial flowers devotes 
herself to mounting them. It requires excellent taste and some 
ingenuity. He pays by the week, from $8 to §10. I called on a 
German lady who makes artificial flowers of paper and coarse 
muslin. She arranges them in wreaths, and sells them to decorate 
small stores, particularly German book stores. She and her 
daughter make a comfortable living at it. It requires long prac- 



294 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



tice in the artificial flower business to earn good wages, and very 
good wages are earned at only a small number of establishments. 
The trickery of mean people in every occupation, it is desirable 
to avoid. In this business much is said to be practised. One of 
the unprincipled acts referred to is this : Learners are told they 
must spend six months acquiring the trade, and during that time 
will receive nothing, but after that get fair wages. One branch 
is learned in a week or ten days, but the apprentices remain, ac- 
cording to agreement, six months doing the same kind of work, 
when they are dismissed on the plea there is no work to give 
them, and new apprentices are taken. Some will keep their ap- 
prentices at but one branch of work for a year or two, so reaping 
the benefit of their work, without giving the instruction they 
promise. Girls who have served several years at artificial flower 
making can seldom earn over $3.50 or $4 a week. Gr. & K., 
one of the oldest and most extensive firms in New York, prefer 
to take girls from thirteen to fifteen years of age. Older girls 
are not satisfied with such wages as learners receive. While 
learning, for the first month, they are paid $2 ; after that, by the 
week, according to what they can do. They teach their girls all 
the different parts, and they make the finest French flowers. 
They give their girls work all the year, and they earn from $1 to 
$6 a week. In summer, they work ten hours ; in winter, nine and 
a half. In this, as in every business, the best hands are most 
sure to obtain employment. Mrs. P. thinks only little girls 
should learn it, as it takes a great while to acquire proficiency. 
She and her partner pay fifty cents a week for two months to a 
learner, then $1 a week for a time, and then increase according 
to what is done. They usually give employment all the year. 
They pay altogether by the week, wages running from $2 to $5. 
At another manufactory, I found the arrangements the same, the 
girls working nine and a half hours in winter, and ten hours in 
summer. At another place I was told that it was best for a 
learner to begin at ten years of age. By the time she is eighteen, 
she will be able to make $4 or $5 a week. In some of the first- 
class houses for the sale of fine French flowers, a few superior 
hands may earn $6 and $7 per week ; but for common flowers, 
particularly in the cheap establishments, the prices paid are very 
low. It is said to be common among some manufacturers of 4 
flowers to mix in a few imported ones with their own, and sell 
them all as foreign flowers. At another place, I found the same 
arrangement, fifty cents a week for a learner ; $4 a week is the 
price paid for a very good hand. At an importer and manufac- 
turer of flower materials, I was told their season commences about 
the first of February. It requires but two or three weeks' prac- 



BELTS BONNET RUCHES. 295 

tice to earn something — then learners are paid by the piece. 
Their girls make centres. They manufacture stamps and veins. 
At a clean-looking place, where the flowers were of a superior 
quality, I was told their girls earn from $2 to $7. At a French- 
man's, I was told, in two months a smart girl could begin to make 
fine French flowers. He pays nothing for two months ; after that, 
seventy-five cents a week, and increases that as the worker 
acquires speed and proficiency. A good worker, he said, can earn 
$9 (?) a week. His girls work nine hours a day. They make all 
parts and different kinds of flowers. Some girls never learn to 
make flowers. At another place, the girls, I was told, are paid 
nothing for three months, but at the end of that time are paid $5. 
They learn all the branches. Workers are paid by the piece, 
earning from seventy-five cents to $6 a week. It requires taste 
and a peculiar aptitude. 

322. Belts. B. & H. have ladies' and children's belts 
made, dolls dressed, fans trimmed, &c. Their business is whole- 
sale. They manufacture for houses here that sell to the Southern 
trade. They have employed at some seasons from twenty-five to 
fifty girls. The belt trade is merely making the goods into 
belts. A person that can sew neatly can learn belt making in a 
day. The girls earn from $3 to $4 per week, and are paid by 
the piece. The belt room is superintended by a man. The 
busiest time for belt making and for trimming in the wholesale 
business, is in July and August, January, February and March. 
Spring work begins in January and ends the first of June, and 
fall work the first of August and ends the first of December. 
Their hands have work most of the year. They have a variety 
of work done; so if there is not enough of one kind for their 
hands, they put them to doing something else. They pay by the 
gross. The sewing must be done by hand. The business is con- 
fined mostly to New York. When business is good, the foreman 
will allow those he knows to take work home, and get their 
mothers and sisters to help them. The factory is in Newark. 
It is difficult to get girls to go there from New York. 

323. Bonnet Ruches. At some factories, ruches are 
made entirely by machinery. They are not as well nor as neatly 
put together, and do not sell as high as those made by hand. It 
does not require long for a girl with any brains to learn, but she 
should commence when young, and gradually rise to the more 
difficult processes. A manufacturer told me girls must be at it a 
year before they are good pressers. For making ruches he pays 
by the week, from $1 to $4.50. Ruche makers are not apt to be 
out of employment more than from two to four weeks. P., New 
York, told us his workers are of all nations. Some work by the 



296 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

week, sewing ten hours a day. Girls sit in his factory while at 
work, but stand in most places. Standing is thought to be the 
easiest position, as it allows of change. He told us that some 
girls earn as high as $6 a week. It is piece work. Joining, sew- 
ing, and pressing are done by females, fluting by men and boys. 
It is best for females that wish to learn the business to commence 
quite early, say when twelve or fourteen years of age. P. thinks 
it would not be advisable to introduce more workers into the 
occupation but I would advise any one desiring to learn the trade 
to make further inquiries into the condition of the business. T., ' 
of Philadelphia, who has been in the business a great many years, 
employs over one hundred females. 

324. Dress Trimmings. In London, many women and 
children are employed in making dress trimmings. The children 
wind the quills, and the women wind the silk on reels, and weave 
it, knit covers for fancy buttons, make fringes, tassels, buttons, and 
other trimmings. In this country most of such work is done by 
women and girls, the majority of whom are Germans, as are also 
the proprietors. They are the best for hand work, but English 
trimming makers are best for power looms. All large cities con- 
tain more or less manufacturers of dress trimmings, but the busi- 
ness is mostly confined to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. 
Many who manufacture, also keep for sale the different varieties 
of sewing and embroidery silk, zephyr wool, patterns, and canvas, 
braid, and such articles. It is only within the last twenty-five 
years that fringes and tassels have been manufactured in this 
country, but quite a number of houses are now engaged in it. The 
goods are said to equal those of Europe. " There are over 1,000 
hands employed in this branch in New York, at least three fourths 
of whom are females. Girls at reeling earn $2.50 ; at braiding, 
$3.30 ; and at weaving, from $4 to 16. w I called at a factory 
where eighty girls are employed. They earn from $1 to $6 per 
week, doing both day and night work. No girl, the foreman said, 
can earn $1 a day of ten hours at that work. When the snow is 
on the ground, the girls can take work home with them to do at 
night, instead of remaining at the factory. He says there are 
different seasons for different kinds of trimmings, as buttons, 
fringes, gimps, &c, and the styles of these trimmings change. 
Work is slack in the early part of the winter for a few weeks. It 
would take three or four years to learn all the branches perfectly. 
Some sit and some stand while at work. At a manufactory in 
New York, I was told the season begins in September and lasts 
through the winter. Their hands earn from $3 to $5 per week. 
There is an over supply of hands in New York. At another place 
I was told the work is nearly always paid for by the piece. Their 



DRESS TRIMMINGS. 297 

hands earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive from $7 to $10. 
Women's part can be learned in from four to six weeks, and learn- 
ers are paid if they do not spoil too much material. June, July, 
December, and January are dull months. In busy seasons good 
hands are very scarce. The clerk of Messrs. B.'s factory told us 
the wages vary greatly. We glanced over the account book, with 
his permission, and observed that the lowest wages were about $1 
a week, and the highest $4. It is piece work, and they will not 
promise employment all the year. He says, if a girl that learns 
cannot earn something in a year, she is not worth having. Their 
work is for wholesale houses. At one place I was told the girls 
work nine hours a day, and receive $4 a week — six months learn- 
ing. After the first week they were paid $1.50 a week for six 
months. They make up a stock when not doing ordered work. 
N. employs from fifty to one hundred women, and sometimes more. 
They can learn in fourteen days. He pays from the first, and 
pays by the week, they working from six to six, having an hour 
at noon. It requires but a few weeks to learn one branch. One 
girl told me she works by the piece, and sometimes earns from $3 
to $6 a week. She works from seven in the morning till gaslight. 
Girls, when reeling and braiding, stand. To those engaged in 
this kind of work, there is employment all the year to twenty-five 
out of every hundred ; the rest are occupied from July to January. 
When paid by the week they seldom receive more than $4, though 
by taking it home and working more hours they sometimes make 
$5. Prices in this kind of work have fallen considerably in the 
last few years. I have been told by a manufacturer that the class 
so employed is usually of not so elevated a character as some 
others. The prices paid and work given for so short a time, pre- 
vent the best class of workers from entering the business*, M — s, 
Philadelphia, employ about seventy females, including book- 
keepers, saleswomen, and trimming makers. In the dull seasons 
their operatives are not likely to be thrown out of work, as the 
wholesale dealers will always require them. The workers are 
paid by the piece, according to the degree of perfection they have 
attained. When a girl presents herself for employment, the fore- 
man immediately sets her to work on some easy kind of trimming, 
but she receives no wages until her work is fit for sale. The loss 
of time on her part and the risk of materials on the part of the 
employer constitute the apprenticeship. A smart girl will of 
course soon be able to earn something, and has always the stimu- 
lus of increasing her gains. The class of girls in the store seemed 
to be superior to those in the workroom, more intelligent and re- 
fined. The workrooms were large and airy. The weavers, but- 
ton makers, &-c, work from eight to ten hours a day. Another 
13* 



298 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

proprietor said a person to learn the business should go to a small 
place, where only a few are employed — not to a factory, as they 
will not be troubled with learners in a factory. Some of his hands 
work slowly, but execute in a superior manner ; others work rap- 
idly, but make the article in an inferior manner. At another man- 
ufacturer's, one of the firm told me a good hand can earn from $5 
to $6 a week, ten hours a day, when times are good. They pay, 
after a learner has spent a week at it, according to what she can 
accomplish. The prospect for work is good, but he would not 
advise a lady to learn it ; he thinks millinery better. In a town 
not far from New York, where he lived, a milliner could earn $20 
a month and her board. Crocheting pays better. For crochet- 
ing the heads of silk fringes, a girl may earn $5 a week. I saw 
the agent of a lady who has trimmings manufactured. He says 
girls spend about two weeks learning, and are then paid by the 
week, from $1 to $4. He thinks the prospect for work very poor 
at present, for their work has been for the South almost exclu- 
sively, and now the Southerners will not purchase, particularly as 
such articles can be dispensed with. They have employed hands 
all the year, but are most busy spring and fall. The busy season 
commences in February. A manufacturer told me he pays his 
learners $2 a week for a time. His girls have work most of the 
year. Good hands can earn $5 a week. Some of his hands take 
work home with them to do in the evening. From the arrange- 
ment of the conveniences in the room, I think the air must be 
not only offensive but unwholesome. I observed this in two or 
three other workrooms. At another factory, I was told it takes 
but four weeks to learn, and girls during that time are paid fifty 
cents a week. Girls earn from $3 to $5. One man told me he 
pays as soon as the work is done well enough to sell. The largest 
manufactory in the world of dress trimmings, curtain trimmings, 
carriage laces, and military goods, is that of W. H. Horstman & 
Sons, Philadelphia. They employ four hundred hands, the ma- 
jority of whom are females. In R.'s dress-trimming manufactory, 
Philadelphia, seventy females are employed, at an average of 
$2.75 a week. 

325. Embroideries. Embroidery was a favorite em- 
ployment of the ladies of ancient times. In the days of Grecian 
prosperity it was a pastime among all ranks of ladies, and in the 
middle ages it was no less popular. The French excel in em- 
broidery. Much of the embroidery sold in New York is done in 
Ireland. "A French manufacturer has invented a process of 
applying the electric spark to piercing designs on paper for em- 
broidery." There now exists a machine by which one lady can 
accomplish as much as fifteen hand embroiderers. There are one 



EMBROIDERIES. 299 

hundred and fifty needles attached, all of which can be in use at 
the same time. By it the most difficult patterns can be executed. 
Many of the machines are now in operation in Germany, France, 
Switzerland, and England. " The canton of Neufchatel employs 
more than 3,500 females in hand embroidery, but this branch of 
the trade is principally carried on in the eastern parts of Switzer- 
land, where manual labor is extremely cheap." In 1851, 250,000 
females were employed in Great Britain in muslin embroi- 
dery, and the larger number of the women did the work at their 
own homes. About a million and a half of dollars then passed 
out of the United States in payment for a portion of this em- 
broidery. We would be pleased to see a greater demand for 
these articles from a home, and less from a foreign market. The 
increased facilities for stamping impressions on the muslin, and 
the consequent cheapness of doing so, tends to render the business 
more lucrative to those employed. The prices earned depend on 
the skill and experience of the worker. Embroidery may be di- 
vided into two kinds, cloth and muslin. The first is used for 
thick goods, furniture covers, ottomans, chair seats, tapestry, &c. 
The other kind consists in the embroidery of ladies' caps, collars, 
handkerchiefs, and other light articles of apparel. The materials 
used are cotton, linen, silk, and silver and gold thread. Embroidery 
is paid for by the piece, according to the quality of the material 
and the amount of work. For stamping muslin to embroider, 
four, six, and eight cents a yard are paid, according to the width 
and style of pattern. Some stamping is done with wooden plates, 
some with copper plates, and some by a paper impression. The 
wooden plates cost from fifty cents to $2.50. Metal tools for 
stamping cost more. It would be well, in establishments where 
embroidery is kept for sale, to keep patterns on hand for braiding, 
needlework, and embroidery. Such patterns have met with a ready 
sale, and always will, when such a pastime is fashionable. I find 
fifty cents a lesson is the usual price paid for instruction in em- 
broidery, and a person accustomed to using the needle can learn 
in a few lessons. One lady told me she charged twenty-five cents 
a lesson. An embroiderer told us but little of such work is done 
now. A good deal of money was made at it, when fashionable 
for outer garments and for children's flannel skirts. A gentle- 
man that has such work done told me that good medallion 
workers would find employment. B., who employs some embroi- 
derers, thinks there is not a surplus of such labor. He could 
employ more hands. He pays by the piece, from $3 to $7 a 
week, Taste and skill with the needle are required. Embroi- 
dery pays poorly — one could not make a living at it now, unless 
they had constant work, and were rapid with the needle : very 



300 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

few in New York depend on it for a livelihood. D., a gold and 
silver embroiderer, thinks a person of ordinary abilities could 
not get to embroidering well in less than one year's practice. He 
pays something after a few weeks — as soon as the work is done 
well enough to sell. Many Germans and French have taken the 
custom. The Germans do it for less, and consequently root out 
other embroiderers. So there is not much prospect for work in 
New York. He has considerable done for cap makers and flag 
makers, who send South and West. He pays his girls from $4 
to $5 a week, and they work from eight to six o'clock. I was 
told at another place that gold and silver embroidery pays well. 
The lady that works for W. earns $25 a week. A man writes : 
" You are aware that women are unable to make the very finest 
kind of needle embroidery, and that wherever the highest skill is 
required, men are needed ? " "VVe are aware there are some 
womanish men in France that embroider, but we must have facts 
before we are convinced that women cannot equal men in em- 
broidering. A young lady, keeping an embroidery store in New 
York, told me her father cuts stencil plates with chemicals for 
embroiderers. In some establishments they are cut by steam 
power. Her father made wooden plates, but it would not pay. It 
takes but a short time to learn stamping, which pays better than 
embroidering. Those that do embroidery cheapest, get most to do. 
The greater part of it is done in winter evenings, as a pastime by 
ladies. Many ladies have stamping done before they go to the 
country in the summer, and embroider while they are in the country, 
putting out their plain sewing. Ladies that embroider, gene- 
rally do their own stamping. M. knows one lady that embroiders 
for two or three stores, and makes a very good living. But she 
thinks very few have enough embroidering to do to occupy all 
their time. The Broadway stores have considerable embroidery 
ordered, and get very good prices ; but their embroiderers, I have 
been told, are not better paid than those of other people. Some 
stores give it to ladies who do it for pocket money. Some of 
these ladies talk about embroidering for their friends, but, lo and 
behold ! they expect their friends to pay them. It requires con- 
siderable practice in embroidery to keep the stitches even, and 
properly shape the leaves and flowers. A French woman told me 
she used to get $1.20 a day for embroidering fine collars in Paris. 
326, Feathers- Mrs. M., Philadelphia, has served an 
apprenticeship of five years at dressing and dyeing feathers, and 
is now (and has been for fifty years) able to perform every part 
of it herself, including the preparation of the dyes. She employs 
women, but they do not give themselves the time or trouble to 
learn enough of it to carry it on on their own account, but are 



FEATHEES — HOOP SKIRTS. 301 

satisfied to acquire enough of it to enable them to earn a day's 
wages. From the information obtained from this veteran, we 
concluded that this trade can be very well carried on by women 
alone ; and farther, that there will always be considerable demand 
for feathers and plumes, at least in large cities. Ladies' plumes 
pay best. She prepares plumes for the military. At a feather 
store in New York, the lady said the season commences in May. 
Learners are paid $1.50 the first week, and, if they become good 
workers, may in a few months earn as much as $6 a week. Mrs. 
D. says she would like to teach some one the business, and 
establish them where she is. She would turn over her custom to 
them. She would do so for $200. Her location is a good one. 
She would instruct how to curl, mend, sew, and color the lighter 
shades, for $5. She says it is not unhealthy, but requires one 
to be much on her feet. Taste, both native and cultivated, are 
required for success. I saw turkey feathers made into a light, 
delicate plume, and those of geese into flowers. Some feathers 
from the tails of roosters formed large, dark, rich-looking plumes 
for children's hats. This I mention to show what the poultry of 
our own barnyards can produce. Mrs. D.'s work was not confioed 
to the feathers of domestic poultry. In dull seasons she prepares 
feathers for busy seasons. Connected with her business might 
be the making and selling of artificial flowers and head dresses. 
She says a superior feather worker can earn $6 a week, and a 
few even $8. Mrs. N. told me she takes learners, paying $1 a 
week for one month, then more if the worker is worth it, and so 
on. She will not teach to dye. All the American feathers used 
in the United States are sent from New York. A colorer and 
curler of fancy feathers told me it does not require more than a 
few weeks to learn, if you can see the process constantly during 
that time. It is easier to learn to curl than dye. To dye feathers 
on a small scale is troublesome, for if you have a feather to be 
dyed one color, another of a different shade, &c, you must mix 
up just enough coloring matter for each one. A lady, that would 
learn the business well, might make a living at it in the South or 
West. 

327, Hoop Skirts. There are now hundreds of women 
employed in the manufacture of hoop skirts, that will, when the 
fashion ceases, be thrown out of employment. What resource 
will they have ? It may be that some other fashion will spring 
up requiring their services, but we doubt it. D. & S., New York, 
employ from 600 to 1,000, and once had 1,500 girls working for 
them. They have large well-aired rooms. We passed through 
and saw their girls at work. They were neat, well dressed, and 
cheerful looking. Nine tenths are Americans. Most of the girls 



302 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

have homes. D. & S. have established a free library of two thou- 
sand volumes for the girls, but owing to the negligence in not re- 
turning books taken out, they lost so many that the library is no 
longer accessible to them. The trade of D. & S. is Southern. 
Their girls earn from $4 to $8 per weel^ and work 9^ hours a 
day in winter. The girls can change their position frequently. 
Women are superior to men for this kind of work. While learn- 
ing, girls receive enough to pay their board. The continuance of 
this occupation depends entirely on fashion. S. thinks the fashion 
as likely to last as the wearing of bonnets. Most of the small 
establishments in this business have been absorbed by the large 
ones. From December to April are the best seasons for work; 
from June to September the most slack. T., a large manufac- 
turer, says the average pay is from $4 to $4.50. His forewoman 
earns $400 a year. Some girls are dull, and some are smart — so 
the time of learning depends much ou that. They pay the girls 
something from the time they begin to learn. They work ten 
hours a day. As a general thing the girls and women spend all 
the money they can spare for dress. The firm have thought of 
establishing a savings bank in connection with their manufactory, 
for the benefit of their workwomen, but have never yet found time. 
Some they pay by the piece ; some, by the day ; and others, by 
the week, or year. Some seasons they employ about one thousand 
work people, of whom nine hundred and fifty are women and girls. 
I saw, at a factory, some girls covering wire for hoops. The ma- 
chinery was very ingenious. They are paid $3, and a few $3.50. 
They have to stand all the time, and watch their work constantly. 
They work ten hours. The man can always get enough of hands. 
It requires but a short time to learn. They have work all the 
year. The spooling, respooling, and covering, are all done by 
women. Girls can earn from $2 to $6 a week, working ten hours. 
I saw an old woman who spools cotton for covering hoop skirts. 
She receives five cents a score, and cords six scores a day, earn- 
ing thirty cents. At a factory I was told the girls work by the 
piece, and get from $4 to $5 per week. Owing to the want of 
proper management on the part of the proprietor, I found the 
girls do not have work steadily. Sometimes they get out of clasps, 
or tape, or hoops, and cannot get them immediately, because of 
their distance from the stores. At B.'s hoop-skirt factory, he 
told me he pays from $2 to $7 a week to his girls, and he employs 
between two hundred and three hundred. It takes but a few 
days to learn. The season commences about the middle of No- 
vember. The twelve o'clock bell rang, and I heard one girl say : 
" Let's swallow our dinner, and, when we have time, chew it.' 7 I 
called at A.'s factory. He has about two hundred girls, and they 



HOOP SKIRTS. 303 

receive from $2 to $5 a week — working ten hours a day. They 
were nice, bright-looking girls. More hoop skirts are manufac- 
tured in New York than in any other city. I was in a factory 
where hoop skirts were woven by hand. The weaver girl we 
spoke to, said she did not get tired now, but did when she com- 
menced. The girls are paid by the piece, and a good weaver, 
when industrious, can earn $1 a day. They do not sell so many 
as formerly. At O.'s, they have employed two hundred girls, but 
discharged one hundred the day before, and the girls earn from 
$3 to $4. Last year they sold more than ever before. They 
pay from the time a learner enters, but of course the pay is 
small for a time. They begin at the lowest branches and gradu- 
ally rise. Those at machines sit, and those at frames stand. 
Some skirts excel in elegance of shape, some in durability, and 
some in elasticity. Many improvements have been made since 
their introduction into this country. The prices paid were bet- 
ter at first than since there has been so much competition. At 
S.'s factory, I was told the girls are paid every Saturday night. 
They are not paid while learning, but, when they have learned, 
can earn from $3 to $5 per week. Some of their girls take their 
work home. The amount of work depends on the market. So 
they cannot tell what amount will be done next spring. They 
are making up to send to New Orleans. Prices have fallen for 
this work, and so a smaller number are employed than formerly. 
Spring and fall are, of course, the best seasons for work. The 
bindings are sewed on by machines, and operatives get about $5 
per week. A. writes from Massachusetts : " Women are employed 
in Europe in making hoop skirts, principally in London and 
Paris. In our country they earn from $4 to $6 a week. I 
pay my men higher wages, on account of the labor they perform, 
requiring more exercise both of body and mind. The work of 
a woman can be learned in a week or ten days, but constant prac- 
tice for months gives greater skill and success. The employment 
is very neat and clean, and gives exercise to the whole system. 
Women are quicker in motion than men, and their powers of en- 
durance greater. A sound mind in a sound body, and ambition 
to excel, together with a tolerable love of money, are qualifications 
necessary to render a girl desirable in this business." This 
branch of business has given employment to upward of twenty 
thousand women in the city of New York, and States of Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The business is usual- 
ly suspended for the winter months. In New York city there 
is always a surplus of girls seeking labor ; they are daughters of 
the poorer classes, and live in tenement houses, in close quarters 
— are shabbily clad, and their wages go to support perhaps a 



304: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

drunken father, or a widowed mother and fatherless children. 
This class of girls contrast sadly in looks and health with country 
girls, accustomed to breathe the free air of heaven. Their flat- 
tened chests, pale faces, and scanty wardrobe tell too plainly of 
the competition of labor among girls in that great city. I am 
told by manufacturers, in New York, that the daily applications 
of girls for employment, at their counting houses, is a source of 
annoyance, and that they are obliged to paste placards on their 
doors to avoid them. This business can be best prosecuted in lo- 
calities where the materials can be purchased, and near markets 
where they are sold. The fact that workwomen are not paid as 
well as men, is owing to competition. In New England, men la- 
borers are scarce, but women compete with each other. Board, 
$2 for ladies, $3 for men." A manufacturer in Connecticut, em- 
ploying from fifty to one hundred, writes he " pays from $3 to 
$4 per week. The best seasons for work are from Jan. 1st to 
April 1st, and from June 1st to Nov. 1st. They work eleven hours 
per day. Women are superior to men, in the more ready use of their 
fingers. Board, $1.50 to $2. Quickness and dexterity are qual- 
ities most needed. " 0. & C, Connecticut, write, their girls, 
" above one hundred and twenty, work by the piece, and earn 
from fifty cents to $1.12 per day, in proportion to their skill and 
industry. A very few in one branch earn more. Living on fash- 
ion, is of course uncertain. Business months, May, June, Octo- 
ber, November, and December. Women are generally inferior 
in construction and skill. Board, $1.75 to $2.50." Manufacturers 
in Ashfield, Mass., write : " We employ about one hundred and 
twenty women. The greater part of them do the work at their 
own homes. Some baste the work together, some work the sew- 
ing machines, some draw the bastings, and others sew on the but- 
tons and finish the work. Our work is all done by the piece. 
Those who work the machines can easily earn eighty-three cents 
a day of ten hours — the others earn from thirty-three to fifty cents, 
according to age, activity, and capacity. We pay men $1 a day 
for cutting the work and packing the goods. Neatness and de- 
spatch are desirable for workers ; and for operatives, sufficient in- 
genuity to keep the machines in good order and condition. The 
work is as comfortable and pleasant, perhaps, as any employment 
whatever. Board, $1.50." I find some firms work ten hours, 
some eleven. 

328. Muslin Sets, Many girls are employed in large 
cities in making up lace goods, as collars, undersleeves, &c. S. 
employs two women to make up undersleeves, caps, &c, and 
pays from $3 to $5 per week to each. They stay from 8 to 6 
o'clock. There are too many in that business who are not well 



PARASOLS AND UMBEELLAS. 305 

qualified. Very few are Americans. Miss A. used to make up 
sets, and earned $10 a week often (piecework), before the South- 
ern trade became so poor. Girls earn from $3 to $5 a week for 
this kind of work. It is cut and prepared by a forewoman. 
Some women sell lace goods on the streets of London. I called 
on a man who employs a number of girls to make crape collars. 
He says experienced hands can earn from $20 to $26 a month. 
They work by the piece. It does not require long to learn. Mrs. 
H. called on a Frenchman who advertised for hands for that pur- 
pose. He offered her $1.50 a dozen for making ornamented 
ones. 

329. Parasols and Umbrellas. The parasol was used 
by the ancients more in religious ceremonies than as a protec- 
tion from the sun. In some of the warmest countries, they are 
as much used by men as women. The manufacture of parasols 
and umbrellas is quite extensively carried on in this country, 
and is one that pays pretty well. At S.'s umbrella manufactory, 
Philadelphia, great numbers of women are employed — one hun- 
dred and seventy-five in his principal establishment, and nearly 
as many in its branches, and some at their homes. They make 
and sew on the covers, and are paid by the piece, according to the 
material and workmanship. It requires about six weeks to learn 
umbrella making. The girls we saw leaving the premises looked 
tidy and cheerful. S. remarked that those who live at a dis- 
tance from the workshop, generally arrive earlier than those who 
live near. He thinks, if they would abstain from excessive use 
of tea and coffee, they would enjoy better health. They used to 
employ Americans principally, but now have foreigners, mostly 
Irish. They can come and go during work hours as they please. 
Last summer there were twelve hundred females, in Philadelphia, 
engaged in making umbrellas and parasols. In most umbrella 
factories in New York, girls are paid eight, nine, and ten cents 
an umbrella. For silk umbrellas, they receive only two cents 
more than for cotton ones. Parasols range in price from four to 
twenty-four cents, according to size, style, and quality of mate- 
rial. Old hands, in some houses, take apprentices for two or 
three weeks, and receive the proceeds of their work for the time 
given in instructing them. March, April, and May are the 
busiest months for making city parasols ; and August, September, 
and October for umbrellas. Where I purchased an umbrella in 
New York, the man said he employed two women in spring and 
one in winter to work. The parasol work pays best. His girls 
earn, when making parasols, from $5 to $6 per week ; but um- 
brellas seldom pay more than half that. The wholesale parasol 
work commences about the middle of December, but his, being 



306 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

retail for the city, does not begin until May. A girl in the 
trade told me that umbrella sewers can earn from $2 to $6 per 
week. Of course they have not work all the year steadily. She 
is paid to stay in the store, and is expected to spend any unoccupied 
moments in sewing for the shop. An umbrella maker told me 
his girls earn from $2 to $6, according to the kind and quantity 
of work they do. He thinks the occupation well filled. In 
New York city, in 1853, there was one parasol and umbrella firm 
that employed two hundred and fifty girls, and their average 
wages were $4 a week. In the umbrella business the work is 
invariably paid for by the piece. A gentleman told me that 
girls in that branch of work become very immoral from associa- 
tion with men while at work ; but in large establishments the 
females have a separate workroom, and there is no need of their 
ever seeing any man while at work, except the foreman. (Why 
might they not have a forewoman ?) S. Brothers say their girls 
earn from $2 to $8 a week. They keep them employed most of 
the year — their best hands all the year. Most of the work is 
done at the factories, but some girls run up the covers at home, 
and come to the factory to put them on the frames. I was told 
that in Philadelphia, work can be done as well for lower prices, 
because living is cheaper. My experience as to the price of liv- 
ing was to the contrary. I talked with one girl who had been 
making umbrellas seven years, but thinks she will die of consump- 
tion in less than two years, from the long and close confinement ; 
but I think the detriment to health arises more from the dust 
and coloring matter that rubs off the umbrella muslin, particular- 
ly in summer, when the coloring matter is absorbed freely by the 
openness of the pores. A manufacturer told me his hands could 
earn from $4 to $6 a week. A learner must spend three weeks 
without remuneration ; then she is paid according to the quality 
and amount of work done. About one fourth of his girls are 
Americans, that have worked out, but desire to do something 
they think more respectable. His hands have work all the year, 
with the exception of six weeks. The busy time commences in 
January. Most of his girls run them up at home, but put them 
on the frames at the factory. S., New York, says the business is 
bad in July, and part of August — also in February. In his 
factory, some tailoresses, and girls that sew for milliners and 
dress makers, get employment until the busy seasons of their 
trades come round. His women get for sewing from $2 to $3 a 
week ; those that cut get from $5 to $8. It requires about two 
weeks to learn the business. A good use of the needle is neces- 
sary in a sewer, and economy in the use of the cloth for a cutter. 
The business is likely to increase. In busy seasons there is 



PARASOLS AND UMBRELLAS. 307 

often a demand for good hands. In Paterson, Newark, and 
other towns where the Irish prevail, they usurp the labor even 
in umbrella making. In New York city a foreign influence 
predominates, and many Irish have come into the business there 
within the last year. The importation from England of umbrel- 
las (like almost everything else) is less and less every year. 
Some manufacturers have the hemming done by machines. S. 
will not, because it throws many women out of employment. A 
Broadway manufacturer informs me he pays the ladies who 
attend his store, each $5 per week — those who sew are paid by 
the piece, and average $4.50 per week. He pays while learning, 
the time of which is one month. A good maker will always find 
employment. The best season is from January to June. Those 
who attend store are there from 8^ until 7 p. m. A manu- 
facturer in New York, who employs eighty girls, informs me " he 
pays by the piece, and each earns about $4 per week. Spring 
is the most busy season. Men and women pursue different 
branches. Board, $1.50 to $2." An extensive manufacturer, a 
Jew, in New York, complained to me that women do not stick 
to one trade. He has often had women who have been semp- 
stresses, cap makers, &c. Some, too, will not remain long at this 
work — they want to go at something else. Now, I would ask 
what a woman is to do, when her trade gives her work but part 
of the year, and her wages for that are merely enough to keep her 
alive during that time ? Is she to be blamed for going to another 
trade in the interval ? No — she is to be commended for her pru- 
dence and good sense. Do men confine themselves to one trade, 
if they find they can do better in another ? The proprietor said 
he would not receive any applicants but those that are of good 
families and bring certificates of character. He pays by the 
dozen, and his women earn from $3 to $4 per week. Some parts 
of the work, he says, is done by machinery that women cannot 
manage. They receive enough to pay their board while learning. 
A woman that has been a milliner has acquired a skill with her 
needle, a smoothness and softness of touch, that enables her to 
become a very good umbrella maker. Such a one is best fitted 
for sewing on silk umbrellas. One that has been a tailoress and 
accustomed to sewing on heavy cloths is deficient in fineness of 
touch, and cannot succeed so well. The secretary of the Water- 
loo Company writes : " The girls of the factory are all paid by 
the piece, and earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive $1.25 
per day, and are practical mechanics. The work of the females 
is easy, and requires little or no experience. Work hours 
average ten, the year through. The women are all American. 
Men's board, $3 ; girls', $2.50." A manufacturer in Concord, New 



308 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Hampshire, " pays his girls from $10 to 112 a month. Women 
can learn their part in from one to three months. The best 
seasons for work are spring and summer — the poorest, winter. 
Board, $6 a month." Manufacturers in Boston write : " We 
employ one woman the whole year in cutting out covers of um- 
brellas and parasols, and pay her $6.50 a week the year round — 
to another, who performs the same kind of work, in busy times, 
say from November 1st to July 1st, we pay $5.50. A superin- 
tendent, who gives out and receives back the work and keeps the 
pay roll, receives $5.50 part of the year, and $4.50 the other part. 
From March 1st to July 1st we employ thirty girls to sew up 
covers and put on frames, and pay by the piece. They average 
$4 per week. We keep ten girls, for this kind of work, through the 
winter. It takes four or live years for men to learn the business ; 
women well versed in the use of the needle, two or three years. 
From December 1st to March 1st, some of our women work on 
furs, or upholstery, and some are unable to obtain any kind of 
work. The supply is more than the demand, particularly this 
year. As a location for this business, the advantages are in 
favor of New York, because of the large market, and on account 
of the principal part of the material being made there. Most 
of our hands board with relations or friends, because they find it 
difficult to get boarding places at such prices as they are able to 
pay. Board, from $1.75 to $3.00." Umbrella stitchers in New 
Britain, Connecticut, " have some girls tending machines, to 
whom they pay from 50 to 75 cents per day of ten hours. They 
have some to sort and pack goods. Women can do the light 
work somewhat cheaper than men, and are somewhat quicker. 
No other parts of the work are suited to their strength and dress." 
330. Sempstresses. In 1845, there were in New York 
ten thousand sempstresses, and now there are probably many 
more. " The following are the prices for which a majority of 
these females are compelled to work — they being such as are paid 
by the large depots for shirts and clothing, on Chatham street 
and elsewhere : — For making common white and checked shirts, 
six cents each; common flannel undershirts the same. These 
are cut in such a manner as to make ten seams in two pairs of 
sleeves. A common fast sempstress can make two of these shirts 
per day. Sometimes, very swift hands, working from sunrise till 
midnight, can make three. This is equal to seventy-five cents a 
week (allowing nothing for holidays, sickness, accidents, being 
out of work, &c.) for the first class, and $1.12£ for the others. 
Good cotton shirts, with linen bosoms, neatly stitched, are made 
for twenty-five cents. A good sempstress will thus earn $1.50 a 
week by constant labor. Fine linen shirts, with plaited bosoms, 



SEMPSTRESSES. 309 

which cannot be made by the very best hand in less than fifteen 
or eighteen hours' steady work, are paid fifty cents each. Ordi- 
nary hands can make one shirt of this kind in two days. Duck 
trousers, overalls, &c, eight or ten cents each ; drawers and 
undershirts, both flannel and cotton, from six to eight cents at 
the ordinary shops, and 12i cents at the best. One garment is 
a day's work for some, others can make two. Satinet, cassimere, 
and broadcloth, sometimes with gaiter bottoms and lined, from 
eighteen to thirty cents — the latter price paid only for work of 
the very best quality. Good hands make one a day. Their coats 
are made for from 25 to 37^ cents apiece. Heavy pilot-cloth 
coats, with three pockets, $1 each. A coat of this kind cannot be 
made under three days. Cloth roundabouts and pea jackets, 
twenty-five to fifty cents. These can be made in two days." In 
a large town, in Massachusetts, we read, not many months past, 
of overalls being made at thirty-seven cents per dozen, or three 
cents a pair, and shirts at forty-eight cents per dozen, or four cents 
apiece. When the times are hard, prices fall from their usually 
low standard. Our hearts sicken within us as we read the prices 
paid needlewomen. The trifling remuneration and wasted health 
of most needlewomen is a bitter reflection on those who employ 
them. Some clothing merchants and cap and shirt makers pay 
their women such prices as enable them to live — better than those 
mentioned above. They are houses of a more respectable class, 
that have a position, and deal with a more liberal class of people. 
The occupation of sempstress is crowded to overflowing in New 
York. In business times it is impossible to get a working person 
to leave New York, but in hard times they are very willing to 
go. One firm told me that they often have applications for 
operators and sempstresses in busy seasons, but then they will 
not leave ; and when the times are dull there is no demand, and 
they cannot, The supply of labor has been greater than the de- 
mand, and hence the competition that has arisen among clothing 
merchants, and the low price of made clothing as sold in slop 
shops. The use of sewing machines has to some extent done 
away with sewing by hand. Many a woman has been thrown out 
of employment by it, to which many of our newspapers can 
testify, and have borne witness during the past two years. We 
have heard of some slop shops in large cities offering to pay the 
highest wages to good shirt makers, each applicant to take a shirt 
and make it for nothing, as a sample of her sewing. From one 
hundred to two hundred, perhaps, apply, and, of course, that many 
shirts are made. It meets the demand of the unprincipled shop- 
keeper, and he has, perhaps, employment for a dozen or more. A 
man that has a ladies' furnishing store, told me he pays girls that 



310 THE EMPLOYMENTS OE WOMEN. 

sew neatly by hand 37J cents a day. Many clothing merchants 
have their work done in the country, because they can have it 
done more cheaply. The sewing done by French linen makers is 
very beautiful. The majority of sempstresses have no time they 
can call their own. Those that sew twelve or fourteen out of the 
twenty-four hours, without any relatives or friends even to be 
protectors for them, and often in bad- health, have no time for 
mental improvement or social intercourse. " The habits of the 
sempstress are indicated by the neck suddenly bending forward, 
and the arms being, even in walking, considerably bent forward, 
or folded more or less upward from the elbows." 

331. Sewing Machine Operatives. There has prob- 
ably been no invention in which so large a number of persons have 
realized fortunes as the sewing machine. All the first manufac- 
turers of them have amassed money. In the United States 150,- 
000 sewing machines are in use. Miss P. says, a sewing machine 
and baster do the work often hand sewers and five basters. We 
hear of some sewing machines in London, each of which can ac- 
complish as much as fifteen pairs of human hands. At several 
highly respectable establishments we were told their operatives 
earn from $4 to $7 a week, according to the abilities of the 
operative, the kind of machine, and the style of work. In houses 
of lower standing, operatives earn from $3 to $5. I was told of 
one man who hires a number of girls to work on machines at 
$2.20 a week. At Y. & Co.'s, operatives earn from $2.50 to $4. 
Machine stitchers of leather generally get $3 a week. The usual 
number of hours for operatives is ten. I have been told that the 
secret of its being so difficult to get basters is, they are paid poor 
wages. A clothing merchant in the Bowery says he has a family 
working for him that earn $28, and sometimes $80 per week. 
They use two machines. The machine-made clothing for men 
sells at about the same price as hand-made, and is generally liked 
as well by purchasers. We think, the sewing of ladies done by 
machine does not pay quite so well as hand sewing ; but if we 
sewed for a living, we would give the machine the preference, be- 
cause of its rapid execution. C., who employs about four hundred 
hands, says their dull season begins the 4th of July. L., who 
sells sewing machines, told me he frequently has applications for 
operatives to go into clothing manufactories, (x. & B. occasionally 
have applications from other places, but always give the choice 
to those who have learned with them. L. thinks the employment 
of operatives will not amount to anything as a permanent reliance 
out of cities. He thinks in one or two years the sewing machine 
will be used in almost every family — as much domesticated as 
the wash tub. In cities where clothing, bagging, &c., are made 



SEWING MACHINE OPERATIVES. 311 

in large quantities, of course, there will be a demand for some. 
L., superintendent of E. S.'s machines, employs from three to 
twelve ladies, and pays from $5 to $10 a week. They stay from 
eight to ten hours. A lady, who hires sewing machines, and 
sends out operatives, told me she charges $2 a day for a machine 
and operative, sending both, and giving twelve hours' time, or 
from $1.25 to $1.50 for an operator only, according to the num- 
ber of hours given. If they are hired for a week or more, the 
prices are still lower. I think the usual hire of a machine only 
is $2 a day. A man that hires machines told me that he rents 
for from $3 to $5 per month, keeping the machine in repair 
during the time, if it is not badly used. Singer's principal ma- 
chine is a strong, heavy one, most suitable for cloth, and requires 
much strength to work long at a time. According to D., a 
clothing merchant, a woman with one of Singer's machines can 
do all the stitching of twelve pairs of cloth pantaloons in a day; 
and a coat that formerly required two days to make by hand, can 
now be made in one sixth of a day. W., agent of W. & W.'s 
machine, says the lady that has charge of L. & S.'s sewing de- 
partment, told him ladies prefer to have their sewing done by 
machines, and that B. will not have his mantillas made by hand. 
He told me of a woman that takes in $30 a week with the aid of 
two girls, to whom she pays $6 a week each, leaving the profit of 
$18 a week ; and of another who makes $8 a week with her machine* 
Now that machines are more plentiful, work done by them is not 
so well paid. The sellers of machines say it is not unhealthy. Some 
people suppose the machine to be much more injurious than the 
needle, if worked as long and constantly. The tax on the muscles 
of the lower limbs and the weaker parts of the system is certainly 
very gieat ; yet those with treadles are thought by some to be 
less injurious than those moved by steam. I talked with a lady 
keeping a depository connected with an influential church for the 
supplying of poor women with work. She thinks sewing machines 
are very injurious — says a girl of seventeen will give out in three 
or five years at most. It produces a pain first in the hips, and 
the jar affects the nerves ; and the sameness of the stitch on white 
or black goods produces a constant strain of the eye. She men- 
tioned a young woman who came a few days before to get sewing, 
who had worked at B.'s five years on a machine, and her sight 
had so failed her that she cannot see to work now by gaslight. 
She was but twenty-three, but looked to be thirty years of age. 
Sewing by machine, I have been told, injures some kinds of goods. 
The needle being large, threads of the cloth are liable to be 
broken. Changing the kind and quality of goods in operating 
injures a machine. The utility and profit of sewing machines 



312 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

have to a great extent been usurped by Jew men, that are tailors 
and cap makers. I have heard that many respectable men in New 
York, after coming home from business, spend nearly or quite all 
the evening in operating on machines, doing the family sewing 
that has been cut and basted ready to stitch. What can we say 
of such effeminacy and meanness, when done by those that are 
able to give such work to poor women ? A lady remarked to 
me : " When sewing machines were invented, it was said new occu- 
pations would be opened to women as the machine came in use, and 
deprived some of a livelihood ; but it is eight years since, and I 
have not heard of one." The sewing machine has certainly thrown 
many women out of employment. Those who are able to purchase 
one may get along. It is in this as in every other branch of 
labor — a capital, however small, is an assistance in business. One 
advantage always gained by machinery is that it enables the poor 
to purchase more cheaply the materials used by them. Free- 
masons often buy machines for the widows they help to support. 
In some of the large manufactories of Dublin, where sewing ma- 
chines are used, from fifty to two hundred women are employed. 



FUK WOEKEES. 

332. Dyers. Dyeing furs is wet and dirty work, and the 
odor is very disagreeable. I was told by a lady that girls at 
such work can earn $4 a week, or if by the piece, from $5 to $6. 
There are very few indeed at it. She thinks it not unhealthy. 
She sometimes cleans furs, mostly ermine, with a powder of some 
kind. In the fur business, people must sell enough in three 
months to keep them the other nine months of the year. In the 
summer they take time to examine, purchase, and make up furs. 
C, a fur dyer and dresser, told me he once employed an English- 
woman to flesh fine skins — i. e. y take off the flesh that adheres to 
a skin when removed from an animal. It is done with a sharp 
knife. She earned as much as a man, $1.50 a day. But men 
object to working with women in that business ; and no American 
women, to his knowledge, know how to do it. 

333. Sewers. From conversations with a number of fur 
dealers in Philadelphia and New York, I find the rate of wages 
for sewers runs from $2.25 a week to $8. Forewomen get good 
wages. Some sewers and liners are paid by the piece, and some 
by the week. Those who work by the week are paid for extra 



FUR SEWERS. 313 

hours. A small number of the women employed in New York 
are English, but the majority are Germans, who have learned 
the business in their own country. In Germany most of the men 
learn to sew, and most of the men engaged in the fur business 
know how. Quite a number in New York are married women, 
whose husbands are connected with the business. Furs are sold 
only in the fall and winter, but made up in the summer. In a 
few places they give work all the year to a small number of work- 
ers, but the majority do not give work more than six months, from 
May to December. Some fur sewers have another trade for the 
other six months, as hat binding, &c. It does not require long 
for a good sewer to learn — from one week to six. There are 
some kinds of fancy far sewing that require rather longer. No 
women are employed in preparing the skins : that is done at dif- 
ferent establishments, generally in the suburbs, and exclusively 
by male hands. The usual number of hours of sewers employed 
by the day is ten ; but many of those who sew by the piece 
take work" home with them to do at night, and so are enabled to 
earn considerably more. Men working in the fur business in 
New York earn from $8 to $12 per week. The quilting for lin- 
ings is done by machines, but the linings are sewed in by hand. 
Liners are generally better paid than sewers, and earn from $6 
to $10. In extensive establishments, a cutter and a certain num- 
ber of sewers and liners confine themselves to one kind of fur. 
Some furriers pay their learners enough to board them ; some do 
not pay anything. I think the supply of hands in New York is 
equal to the demand. The best workers, of course, are most sure 
of employment. New York is the great fur depot of the United 
States, but some business is also done in Boston, Philadelphia, 
and Baltimore. Furs are sent from St. Louis and Chicago to be 
made up in New York, and part of them returned to be sold in 
those cities. Those that sew furs at home can most conveniently 
take learners. There are a number of middlemen in the fur busi- 
ness, who get work from the stores and make a profit by employ- 
ing women to do it at lower wages. Mrs. G., an importer and 
manufacturer, cuts her own furs, particularly ermine and sable. 
She says furs are sometimes cut in Germany by women, but peo- 
ple in this country think a woman cannot properly cut them. 
Work at the fur business in England is said to pay better than 
any other. G — s, the largest firm in New York, write : " We 
pay women from $2.50 to $6 per week. Some work by the 
week, some by the piece. Men get about double wages, but their 
work requires more physical strength. Men do the cutting and 
matching, and it requires several years to be a good workman. 
Sewers receive about half price while learning. Some women 
14 



314 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

can learn all that is necessary in a few months. The prospect 
of employment is not so good as heretofore. The women work 
the year around. Work hours are 9^. Board, $2 to $2.50 per 
week." Most furriers report the employment healthy, but it is 
not, on account of the dust and loose hairs flying, for persons pre- 
disposed to consumption. A furrier in New York writes : " I 
pay mostly by the piece. It takes about one year and a half for 
women to learn the parts they do. The amount of work hereafter 
depends some upon fashion and the weather. The best seasons for 
work are from May until February. We could not shorten the 
hours of work unless the business had a longer season. Board, from 
$1.50 to $2." A furrier in Boston writes: "Women are em- 
ployed for sewing and lining furs here, in England and France, 
and partially in Germany, Russia, &c. Week hands get from $4 
to $4.50, ten hours a day ; others, from $2 to $6. Business in 
future is uncertain. I am busy from July to Christmas. The 
best location for the business is where furs are fashionable. " A 
fur dealer in New York, who employs from 10 to 15 women, 
gives the following answers to questions concerning the fur busi- 
ness : " The work is very easy, and not unhealthy. I pay women 
from $3 to $6 per week, ten hours a day. They are as well paid 
as males, in proportion to the amount of work done. Any apt 
female can learn in three months, and is always paid by me $2.50 
per week while learning. The business is better and there is 
more of it every year. Work is steady from May to December ; 
very little at other times. The comfort and remuneration of the 
employment is satisfactory among working classes. Women are 
more capable of handling a needle for light, fine work than men. 
The colder the climate, the better the location for business, pro- 
vided people have money to buy furs." In some establishments 
where men and women work in the same departments, they are 
allowed to talk while at work ; but the practice, some complain, is 
not conducive to good morals. The character of the people and 
conversation, however, would decide that. 



FITTEKS, CUTTEES, AND SEWEES OF LADIES' 
AND CHILDEEN'S WEAE. 

334. Bonnets. The making of silk, crape, velvet, and 
other fancy bonnets gives employment to many females. Con- 
nected with this is the bleaching of straw, Leghorn, and hair 



BONNETS. 315 

"bonnets. In large cities this is a separate branch of business. 
The making and selling of bonnets has long been one of the few 
employments open to women in the United States. If a milliner 
gets a good run of fashionable custom, she can do well. Most 
proprietors of millinery establishments make a handsome profit 
on their goods, but some of the girls employed receive but a 
scanty pittance. I have been told that in Holland men milliners 
are common. From a newspaper we take this pithy article : "A 
stranger in Mexico is struck with the appearance of the milliners' 
shops, where twenty or thirty stout men with mustaches are em- 
ployed in making muslin gowns, caps, and artificial flowers." The 
cruelty exercised by some milliners and dress makers toward 
those in their employ, by requiring of them too long and severe 
application, is very great. Many girls suffer, as the effects, 
diseases of the spine and the eyes. " In the case of the milliners 
and dress makers in the London Metropolitan Unions, during the 
year 1839, as shown by the mortuary register, out of fifty-two 
deceased, forty-two only had attained the age of twent} 7 -five ; and 
the average of thirty-three, who had died of disease of the lungs, 
was twenty-eight." But the length of time required of their 
employes by milliners and dress makers in London is longer than 
in the United States. A number of women are engaged in the 
sale of millinery on the streets of London. Girls usually spend 
from six months to a year learning the millinery business. Un- 
less a girl has taste and talent, she is not likely to be benefited 
even by a year's apprenticeship, for it is rarely the case that they 
are instructed in any but the mechanical work. No pains are 
taken to instruct them in what is becoming or stylish, what 
shades are most harmonious, how to make a graceful bow, and 
turn a well-trimmed end, to arrange a face trimming, and render 
attractive the tout-ensemble. A hundred small minutiae are 
essential to- a first-class trimmer, among which is a nice discrim- 
ination of colors and shades. A knowledge of the languages is, 
in cities, desirable for milliners' saleswomen. A love of dress is 
said to be created by working at such articles. Many bad effects 
must result from the indulgence of such a taste by those who re- 
ceive the small wages of most girls working at the millinery and 
dress-making business. Over four hundred women are employed 
in the large straw-goods and millinery establishments in Phila- 
delphia. W. had, in 1854, three hundred girls making and 
trimming bonnets, and twenty-six in the store as saleswomen. 
They were paid from $2.50 to $6 per week. W. & L., his suc- 
cessors, employ about twenty-five women constantly all the year, 
and about one hundred and twenty-five on an average of six 
months in the year. Their best workers and saleswomen receive 



316 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

about $1 a day; some get a little more, and some rather less. 
The business has increased greatly during the last few years. 
The only kind made by that firm are silk and fancy bonnets. 
One of the firm told me that the largest establishments of fancy 
bonnets in Paris employ only about fifty women. They have 
girls spend three months learning, and pay nothing during the 
time. A girl does well to earn seventy-five cents a day. Six 
years ago a good worker could earn $8 or $9 a week. C, Phila- 
delphia, employs twenty-six girls in the store and millinery de- 
partment, and pays about $4 a week, according to their capacity 
and diligence. Learners spend six months with him. Some 
time ago I saw it stated that there are " 450 millinery establish- 
ments in New York city, and 1,800 milliners working in shops, 
and 900 at home ; — 35,000 silk and velvet bonnets are turned out 
of the workshops of New York city, in the three months of the 
fall, and the five months of what is known as the spring trade." 
" Of straw bonnets, one million two hundred thousand are sold 
annually to the milliners of New York for their trade alone." A 
tasteful and dexterous trimmer can generally secure a good place 
and fair wages, but the majority of milliner girls are apt to be 
out of employment, except in the spring and fall. Most in the 
millinery business are Americans ; yet French, German, and Eng- 
lish are well represented. The prices paid for bonnets vary- 
greatly in New York, according to the locality and establishment 
from which they are obtained. No one who has not priced them 
could believe the difference would be so great for bonnets of the 
same material and make, merely because purchased on such a 
street or at such a store. The milliner girls of New York are 
said to be good looking. The time milliners and dress makers 
spend at their work is such as to preclude (except in a few first- 
class establishments) any time for exercise and mental culture. 
Their wages are so low that they could not indulge- in any rec- 
reation if they had the time. Those girls that live at home can 
afford to do work cheaper generally than others. Such girls are 
drawbacks to those who pay their board. Western merchants do 
not purchase- as much as formerly in New York, because milliners 
have gone West. Southerners have purchased, until lately, 
nearly all their bonnets at the North. There are, or will be 
openings in the South for milliners. In 1845, " apprentices at 
the millinery business in New York gave one year to learn, 
boarded themselves, and, in some of the most aristocratic estab- 
lishments, had to pay a bonus." Now it is different. The time 
given is usually six months, and an apprentice receives her board 
for her work. Mrs. S., Broadway, employs about fifty hands in 
the busy season—all American girls, very genteel looking. It 



BONNETS. 317 

requires six months to learn. They are not paid during the 
time ; and, after that, are paid according to abilities. I called in 
one establishment where there were two girls employed, Ameri- 
can. They received each $6 a week. A milliner told me she wanted 
a first-class workwoman, and would pay from $6 to $7 a week, 
according to her swiftness and taste. I called in a small store 
of dry and fancy goods, with which was connected a millinery. 
The young lady waited on customers, and$ in the intervals, 
trimmed bonnets for the store. She received $1 a day, and is at 
the store by half past seven, and leaves at nine at night. She 
lives near, so she goes home to her dinner and supper. A lady 
told me of a Miss M., on Canal street, w T ho commenced the mil- 
linery business five years ago with twenty dollars, and is now 
worth $3,000. A milliner in New York told me she could, by 
piecework, sewing early and late, make $7 per week. Mrs. T. 
has learners spend six months, during which time they are not 
paid. After that she gives them from $3 to $7, according to 
competency. The number of hours spent in the store depends on 
the agreement of the parties. One can best learn where there 
are vacancies by inquiring at the millinery shops and of girls 
working at the business. At a fashionable millinery, on Broad- 
way, the lady in the showroom told me the girls receive from $3 
to $12, working ten hours a day. There is one that selects, ar- 
ranges, and invents, who receives $12 per week. A surplus of 
indifferent hands can always be obtained. Sometimes good hands 
fail to get employment, because in busy times some indifferent 
hands are engaged, and it is difficult to get rid of them. She has 
had to turn away many nice-looking girls seeking for work. On 
back streets and avenues in New York, women work longer, and 
the stores are kept open later than on Broadway. On Division 
street, large cases of .bonnets are exposed for sale in summer on 
the sidewalks. In the poorer portions of a city, people live much 
and sell mostly out of doors. Their crowded apartments and the 
high price of rent account for it. D., on Broadway, informs me 
that he knows of an invention connected with his business — the 
sale of straw goods — that will throw ten thousand people, mostly 
men, out of employment. He says his girls spend all they make 
on dress. He has two forewomen, to each of whom he pays $500 a 
year. They never save a cent. He had one to whom he paid 
$1,000, but she never laid by a dollar. Women, he thinks, have 
not as much originality of thought as men. They seldom invent. 
He would give $1,000 a year to a woman that would think for 
him, and originate styles, and combine and arrange the trimmings 
of his bonnets with taste. He walks on Broadway, and studies 
the fashion of bonnets ; but none of his women ever do. (Perhaps 



318 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

they have no time.) Women, he thinks, never acquire such pro- 
ficiency as men. They advance to a certain degree in the art, 
and ever after are stationary. He thinks it is partly because the 
majority look forward to marrying, and partly because they are 
so constituted that they are not susceptible of acquiring the 
highest degree of excellence. (I fear that D. does not consider 
that women have not had as much time nor so many opportuni- 
ties for improving themselves as men, nor have they as much to 
stimulate them.) He pays women from $3 to $8 per week. His 
girls spend four months learning. B. 3 another Broadway bonnet- 
dealer, told me u good workwomen could at any time find em- 
ployment by going to the country towns around, but they do not 
like to go from the city. Milliners often come to the city, and 
spend two weeks trying to get hands, and then pay them more 
than they are worth to go. His forewoman directs some of the 
trimmings, but part are left to the taste of the girls. His is a 
wholesale business, and he trims many bonnets before sending 
them away. Some of his girls earn on an average $7 — a fore- 
woman more. The occupation is not entirely filled by good 
hands, and pays well. He employs his hands about eight months." 
One of the proprietors of a straw-goods warehouse told me " his 
women earn from $6 to $10 (average $7 a week), ten hours a 
day. The season commences December 1st, and runs to March 
15th, and again from July 1st to September 1st. Taste, industry, 
and imitative powers are the qualities most needed. He employs 
about sixty in the busy season. When that is over, some go to 
millinery shops and work, some to the country, and some to towns 
in the surrounding States. The girls that work in cheap shops 
are mostly Germans, and earn from $2 to $4. Some women, 
while learning, receive their board for their work. By quilling 
ruches and such work, if not by their bonnet work, they can earn 
their board. He does not pay learners, because the waste of 
materials amounts to the worth of their work. Girls of Irish 
parentage often make good milliners, and display very good taste 
in trimming." A Boston milliner writes: " The wages of the 
women I employ vary from $3 to $15 per week, of ten hours a 
day, according to the amount of custom the}' can bring, and their 
aptness for the business. There are comparatively few persons 
that make good milliners. As a milliner, one must have good 
taste and nimble fingers ; as a saleswoman, she needs to understand 
human nature, have activity, an honest heart, and good disposi- 
tion. The best seasons are from March to July, and from Sep- 
tember to January." A lady in Reading, Pa., who employs 
girls, informs me " she pays $3 a week, ten hours a day, to 
some; to others, $1.50, but the latter she boards. A knowledge 



BONNET FRAMES. 319 

of reading, writing, and arithmetic is desirable." A milliner in 
Auburn, N. Y., pays from $2.50 to $5 per week, of ten hours a 
day. A girl spends six months learning, if she boards herself; 
one year, if boarded by her employer. The dull months are July, 
August, January, and February. A lady in Poughkeepsie 
writes " she gives from $2.50 to $3.50 and board to some, and 
from $4 to $4.50 and dinner to those who lodge and otherwise 
board themselves. It requires one year and a half to learn the 
business thoroughly, and during the time they receive only board. 
None should learn millinery except those who have homes, or 
design to carry on the business. Her girls work from 7 a. m. to 
7 p. M. The business is easy and pleasant to the industrious and 
to those who can sit much. Out of work hours, they have time 
for study, attendance on lectures, meetings, &c. Board, $2." 
Millinery is often carried on in connection with some other busi- 
ness, in small towns. A lady who combines millinery and book 
selling, in Easton, Pa., furnishes board and pays from $1.50 to 
$2 per week, of twelve hours per day, to her girls. She pays 
about one half the price of male wages. If they spend six 
months learning, she pays their board. Two or three first-class 
milliners could find employment in Sacramento, California. 

335. Bonnet Frames, Bonnets, of course, are worn in 
all civilized countries, and as long as bonnets are worn there must 
be bonnet frames. Several hundred women are employed in bon- 
net-frame making in New York. K. employs two hundred girls, 
and H. one hundred and fifty. The time of learning is from two 
weeks to two months, but some never learn. The more practice a 
worker has, the better she succeeds. Learners are paid nothing. 
Some women working at the trade, take learners for their labor. 
Workers earn from $2 to $12 a week, but it is a rare thing any 
earn the last-mentioned sum. Fast hands, to work constantly 
from 6 a. m. till 10 p. m., sometimes can. The usual price, in all 
respectable establishments, is fifty cents a dozen. In busy seasons 
there is sometimes a scarcity of hands. There are no factories 
South and West, consequently they present openings for the 
business. Apprentices generally commence in March. The 
busy seasons are from January to June, and from August to De- 
cember. Some houses are not busy until in February, and their 
fall business lasts till January. The art of making the wire part 
of the frames is learned in six weeks. The crowns are made by 
machinery attended by women. Some manufacturers have all 
their women to work in the establishments, but the majority have 
the work taken home. H. says " the business is the same, so far 
as confinement is involved, as making up clothes at home. The 
girls come two or three times a week for their work ; so they 



320 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN*. 

Lave that much, walking. The prospect of work to competent 
hands is good. He has a great many to reply to his advertise- 
ments for learners, but for hands he has lately advertised seven 
times and got but five. Some leave the business for places as 
saleswomen in millinery establishments ; but that is more uncertain, 
for it is more difficult to retain the same place long. It requires 
a year to learn thoroughly. It is necessary that the work be 
uniformly done ; for instance, one hundred and twenty bonnet 
frames should be so uniform that one would not differ from an- 
other. Buckram frames are used to shape them on. The wages 
paid, he said, vary as much as the rainbow. They range from 
$2.50 to $8. He knows one woman that earns $10 a week now 
and then. He sends goods away to California, and other parts 
of the Union. He also manufactures for the city trade. The 
season for work to send away commences about the 20th of 
January, and ends about the middle of May ; the fall season 
begins 20th July, and ends 15th December. The city trade gives 
work in the intervals. A girl of intelligence and ability can make 
enough to keep her when out of work. Some employers keep 
their hands all. the time, for the sake of having them the next 
season. The girls employed in the business are mostly Irish and 
Americans. He boarded some of his girls, but they would asso- 
ciate with the servants. What was said before them was repeated 
to the servants, and vice versa. They got the impression that 
he was making money off their board, though he charged but $2 
a week. He thinks the result of large numbers of girls congre- 
gating in the same house is bad. The influence of one depraved 
one may be exerted over every fourteen good ones, and discon- 
tent and rebellion be the consequence. Eew persons are willing 
to board working girls, because the remuneration is small, and 
the girls are expected to be furnished with nearly the same ad- 
vantages as higher-priced boarders. Those that work in their 
rooms are about the house nearly all the time, and all expect the 
privilege of using the laundry for doing their washing." 

336. Bonnet Wire. At a bonnet-wire factory, I was 
told but little of the work could be done by women ; but, if my 
eyesight did not deceive me, it could all be done by women. 
Covering the wire was done on a steam-power machine, which 
only required attention. The spooling is done by females, and 
also tying it up, when covered, into bunches of twenty yards each. 
A manufacturer of bonnet wire writes : " We employ some girls, 
and pay from 83 to $3.50 per week, of twelve hours a day. Fe- 
males cannot do all parts of the work. It requires from one to 
four weeks to learn, and they receive while learning enough to 
pay their board. The business is best nine months of the year, 



CLOAKS AND MANTILLAS. 321 

during fall, winter, and spring. We prefer girls to boys, for such 
work, as they can do. Board, from $1.50 to $2." 

337. Children's Clothes. Quite a number of stores are 
devoted to the sale of children's clothes in large cities. A hand- 
some profit is generally made by the merchant. At Mrs. C.'s, be- 
tween three hundred and four hundred females find employment in 
making up children's clothing of all kinds (mostly infants') ; also 
under-garments for ladies. A large assortment is constantly kept 
on hand, and they are ever busy filling orders; giving employment 
about nine months in the year to all, and to some the year round. 
The work is mostly done by hand, and to sew neatly is the only 
requirement. The work is all cut in the establishment and given 
out, being piecework. The sewers earn from $3 to $6 per 
week ; cutters, the last-mentioned sum. Aside from these, a few 
girls are employed in the establishment, who wait upon customers, 
and sew when they have leisure. 

338, Cloaks and Mantillas. Mayhew says: " In 
London, the workwomen for good shops, that get fair or tolera- 
bly fair wages, and execute good work, can make six average- 
sized mantles in a week, working from ten to twelve hours a 
day ; but the slop workers, by toiling from thirteen to sixteen 
hours, will make nine such mantles in a week." At a wholesale 
store, Philadelphia, where sixty women are employed, I was told 
they earn from $3 to $6 per week. The head cutter has $6, the 
assistant, $5. When the work is finished at the wholesale houses, 
the good hands can find work at the retail houses. The best and 
most steady hands are kept in work all the year. Miss S., JS T ew 
York, has her stitching and seaming done by machines. She 
pays $5 a week to a good operator. She does her own cutting. 
The prospect of employment to learners is good, even in the city, 
in prosperous times. She has sold a great deal to Southern ladies 
stopping at the hotels. She estimates one machine to do as much 
as seven sewers. M. pays his girls '$5 a week, and they work in 
daylight only. A cutter designs, and consequently should have 
taste, judgment, and experience. A good cutter can earn from 
$1 to $10 a week, and usually has one assistant, who superintends 
the girls while at work. Several mantilla manufacturers have 
failed, and he could get fifty thousand mantilla makers to-day. 
Gr. & Co. make for wholesale houses. They pay by the piece, 
and a girl can earn $4 a week, taking work home with her 
at night. It requires from six weeks to three months to learn. 
Nothing is paid during that time. Mrs. M., who makes mantillas 
for S., Broadway, says she takes learners, but they do not learn 
anything, for most they do is to pick out basting threads, run 
errands, &c. Good sewers can make from $3 to $5 per week, 

14* 



822 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

ten hours a day. Cutters can earn from $6 to $7. She thinks 
the prospect for a few, that would properly qualify themselves, 
would be good in the South or West, provided they find openings, 
take hands from New York, and he willing to incur some expense 
for a short time. In Richmond, Savannah, and Charleston, it has 
been almost impossible to get good hands. S. wanted a woman 
cutter, and would pay from $8 to $10 for a competent one. His 
work is done mostly in the house, and continues all the year. It 
is almost entirely done by machine. B — s (German Jews) employ 
German girls mostly. They prefer to keep old hands that have 
been with them several years. They think German girls most 
industrious, and love best to make money. American girls, B. 
charged (I think unjustly) with working just enough to get along, 
and spending all their spare time promenading. According to his 
account, cutters earn from $15 to $20 a week. He employs his 
girls most of the year. The occupation of mantilla making, he 
says, is more than filled in New York. Board, $2.50 to $3. At 
H.'s wholesale mantilla depot, I was told it is best to learn to 
make mantillas with those who sew for the mantilla merchants. 
Some of their girls sew in the building, some take their work 
home. If they do not know applicants for work, they require 
some one as security, who has property or is in business for him- 
self. A gentleman told me that, not long since, he saw an adver- 
tisement by a mantilla manufacturer for men to make mantillas 
and cloaks. A manufacturer in Boston writes me he " employs 
seventy-five women, and pays them mostly by the piece ; some 
receive as high as $12 per week, average $6. They are paid by 
the piece from the first ; but until they acquire dexterity, they 
can earn but $3 or less per week. Cloak and mantilla making 
is constantly increasing, like the ready-made clothing business. 
The busy seasons are from February to July, and from September 
to December. Many are out of employment about three months 
in the year. As sellers of goods, he finds men better qualified, 
because of having been educated from children with views to 
business. The New England States are the best for manufactur- 
ing, as in other localities it is more difficult to obtain female help. 
Board, from $2 to $3." Another cloak maker in Boston writes : 
"I employ from twenty to thirty women (mostly American), and 
pay by the day, They work nine hours a day, and receive from 
$4 to $10 a week. A good sewer, with taste, will learn in six 
months. Some learners I pay, some I do not. Spring and 
autumn are the most busy seasons. The girls are not out of em- 
ployment two months. I employ three ladies as saleswomen. 
Board, from $2 to $5 a week." A cloak and mantilla maker in 
New Haven writes me " he employs twenty-five American girls, 



COSTUMES. 323 

and pays by the week, from $4 to $8. He pays learners when 
they have spent six months at the trade. His girls are princi- 
pally farmers' daughters, who are rapidly taking the place of men 
in stores. Board, $2.25 to $3.50." A manufacturer in Provi- 
dence writes : " I employ women in making and trimming bon- 
nets, making cloaks and mantillas, and as saleswomen in my store. 
I pay by the week, from $3 to $8 — average, $4.75 — ten hours a 
day. Six months is the time usually spent in learning either 
trade. In January, February, July, and August, some of my 
workers are out of employment. All are Americans, and pay 
for board from $2 to $2.50." P., of Providence, " employs 
about twenty girls making dresses and cloaks, whose wages depend 
upon their ability as sewers ; average price per week, about $4." 

339. Costumes. P. pays his girls (five in number), each, 
$3 a week. They work from eight to five o'clock. He has no 
difficulty in getting hands. Anybody that can sew can make 
costumes, but it requires taste for the design and arrangement 
of such as his — theatrical. B.'s girls sew at the house, 9^ hours 
in winter, and the best earn from $3 to $4 a week. Their cos- 
tumes are theatrical, and are very slightly put together. A slow, 
careful sewer would not answer for them. They want their work 
done so that it will rip up easily. They have many costumes on 
hand for sale. They have a lady cutter. They give employ- 
ment but four months, and they are in winter. W., employed in 
both flag and costume making, has been in the business since 
1822, and employs six girls all the year. Flags, costumes, &c, 
used in the South, have always been ordered in New York, so 
there will be some openings in the South for such work. W. 
pays $3 and $4 a week to his best hands, and has his sewing 
done in the house. His work is of a superior quality, and, con- 
sequently, commands a good price. He employs only correct 
and fast sewers. He thinks there are openings for girls of good 
moral character, properly qualified. A lady cutting out cos- 
tumes told me that it requires judgment to make the two halves 
alike — sleeves, for instance ; also to know in how short a time an 
article can be made up, where and how to get workers, &c. It 
is difficult to get good hands, and some of the materials are 
costly — so they do not like to give work to any one they do not 
know. A spangler receives from them 62 \ cents a day. Mrs. 
T. employs a number of hands, paying $3 a week to those that 
work in the house — ten hours a day. Those that take their work 
home are, of course, paid by the piece. She does all her own 
cutting out. It requires ability to fit, ingenuity to design, and 
taste to execute. Spangling pays best. She had a lady tinsel- 
ling and spangling for her, that made a good living at it. She 



324: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

does opera and theatrical work, mostly. She makes some ball 
costumes also. Equestrian work she does not like, as it is pretty 
much made up of horse trappings. The prospect for those who 
would learn it well, she thinks very good. She finds it difficult 
to get superior workers. The girls that sew for costumers are 
mostly those who prefer that to going out to do housework, be- 
cause they can have their evenings as their own. It is usual to 
have a costumer travel with an opera troupe, who directs and 
superintends the making up of costumes, and dresses the prima 
donna before she makes her appearance on the stage. Mrs. S. 
takes learners, paying them half price for two or three months, 
while learning. She makes up most after Thanksgiving, for the 
Christmas festivities ; but in summer she makes up some ball cos- 
tumes, and apparel and drapery for tableaux, and operas at water- 
ing places. She has from one to two hundred women and girls 
sewing for her at different times. Frequently she is very much 
hurried, and must employ a great many to assist, for bills announ- 
cing operas are often out before the costume is brought to her. 
At W.'s, they pay $3 a week — ten hours a day — and are most 
busy about Christmas. 

340. Dresses. In Germany, many dress makers are men, 
and there is one on Broadway, New York. France is the foun- 
tain head of fashion for ladies' dress. Most of the fashions, 
however, are Americanized when introduced into this country. 
Dress is, to some extent, an index to the mind of the wearer. 
Judgment and good taste are the best guides. Several things 
are to be taken into consideration — age, complexion, proportion, 
means, station, comfort, and decorum. A lady, with command 
of a full purse, can dress as she pleases. Rich and elegant cloth- 
ing, appropriately made, is an ornament, and well becomes those 
that can afford it. With a scant purse, a lady cannot dress very 
handsomely, yet she may always observe neatness and propriety 
of costume, A passion for dress is apt to betray an empty mind 
or great vanity. Much of the beauty of a dress depends on its 
tasteful make. If the figure is bad, it improves it. If good, it 
adds to the beauty of the figure, which is one of the most im- 
pressive modifications of beauty. In dress making, a lady has 
only to establish a reputation as a successful fitter and fashion- 
able trimmer, and she will be sure of a run of custom and hand- 
some profits. I am sorry to say, in the majority of dress-making 
establishments, no reliance can be placed on the word of the 
principals, in regard to the time work will be finished. While 
many of those at the head of dress-making establishments are 
realizing dazzling profits, the poor sempstress, working in busy 
times from twelve to sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, re- 



DRESS MAKERS. 325 

ceives the generous allowance of from $1.50 to $4.50 a week. 
But few, and those only of much skill, taste, and dexterity, ever 
gain better prices. Fitters and forewomen, in some places, gain 
from $4 to $7 per week. I believe it is generally thought men 
fit better than women, so many ladies have their basques and 
riding habits made at tailors' establishments. We do not see 
why the plan used by tailors, of fitting by measure, is not .more 
generally applied to dress fitting. Dress making is more fatiguing 
than millinery work, because you have to sit at it more steadily 
and there is more sameness in it. Spring and fall are the most 
busy seasons. Those who can secure sewing in good families, 
and have some decent place to go in the intervals, are better off 
than most others. They receive from 50 cents to $1.25 per day 
and their dinner. It would probably require a little time to be- 
come known ; and one, to succeed, must know how to do all parts, 
from the fitting to the finishing off; so it requires skill and a 
thorough knowledge of the business. A lady who sews by the 
day told me she often gets her system out of order by the differ- 
ent food of the several families she is in, and the different times 
of taking it. We think there are no regular hours for those who 
work by the day in New York. The length of the day depends 
on the mercy of the employer. " Dress makers in Boston, some 
years ago, adopted the ten-hour system, and now average $1.25 
per day. Previously they received but 75 cents or $1." The 
demand for dress makers in the Northern and Eastern States is 
fully met, but throughout the South and West there are openings, 
here and there, for good dress makers. There is probably no oc- 
cupation in which there are so many incompetent persons as that 
of dress making. Many persons take it up without having learned 
the trade at all, and many who become reduced in circumstances 
immediately resort to it without any preparation, and are desti- 
tute, not only of experience, but of skill, ingenuity, and taste. 
In New York, the conditions on which apprentices are taken vary 
greatly. Some ip&y nothing for six months, and even receive $10 
or $15 for instruction. The girls are kept at making up skirts, 
sewing up sleeves, and such plain work, and so learn nothing 
during the time. Some are taken for a year, and boarded during 
that time for their work. Some live at home, and are paid from 
$1.50 to $2.50 for their work. Some are taken for two years, 
to learn the trade thoroughly, and work from eight to twelve 
hours a day. Some apprentices have not the ability to become 
good fitters and sewers, and are destitute of artistic taste ; but 
women seldom change from one employment to another on dis- 
covering their incompetency. The majority, probably, have not 
the time or means of doing so. Miss B. says those who sew for 



326 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

dress makers receive from $2.50 to $4 a week, working ten hours 
a day. Apprentices that can sew right well when they com- 
mence, receive at some houses $2 a week for six months, but they 
are not taught to fit unless the employer is a conscientious 
woman and there is a special contract. When the busy season 
is over, the inferior hands are turned off without an hours' warn- 
ing. It is desirable to get a good class of customers, that the 
pay will be sure, and that the dress maker may know what to rely 
on. Some dress makers in New York have kept the patterns of 
ladies in the South, and made their dresses for years. If a 
slight change was needed, for instance, the length increased, or 
the waist made smaller, or vice versa, the lady wrote accord- 
ingly. Miss B. never works for servants. They do not pay as 
well, and are just as particular as their mistresses. She never 
works for a stranger, unless recommended by one of her custom- 
ers. Mrs. C. told me that a girl of fair abilities can learn dress 
making in six months. The first three months she does not pay 
anything, but the last three $1 a week. After they have learned 
she pays according to their taste, skill, and industry. One girl, 
that has good taste in trimming and finishing off, she pays $4 a 
week ; another, that sews well and is industrious, but deficient in 
taste, she pays $2. They all live at home. Those girls that 
live at home are often willing to work for less than the ordinary 
wages, as they are not at the greatest of all expenses — boarding. 
They work from seven in the morning until six, having an hour 
at noon. They prefer it to the hours of some of the Broadway 
shops, which are usually from eight to seven. By the first ar- 
rangement they are enabled to get home early and go to any 
place of amusement. Miss H. told me that three years ago she 
earned $7 per week, ten hours a day, sewing for a French lady 
on Broadway, who had a great run of Southern custom. There 
were many strangers in the city at the time. " Servant girls 
seldom pay over $1 for making a dress ; yet 10,000 servant girls 
in New York city, will have from three to six and eight new 
dresses a year." At Wilson's Industrial School, New York, 
some of the older girls are taught dress making. 

341. Dress Caps and Head Dresses. The making of 
ladies' dress caps is an extensive and important branch of busi- 
ness. The rates at which they are now put together, enable 
most ladies to buy them already made. In large cities there are 
separate establishments for the sale of them, but in smaller towns 
they are sold at milliner shops. Much taste should be, and gen- 
erally is, exercised in this department of business. In London, 
on the streets, the caps and bonnets exposed for sale are placed 
in inverted umbrellas. On summing up what was told me by 



DRESS CAPS AND HEAD DRESSES. 327 

eight manufacturers of dress caps and head dresses, I find the 
prices they pay the women who sew for them, run from $2 a 
week to $10 — the average $4. Some pay by the week, but most 
by the piece, which is usually most profitable to the worker, and 
most satisfactory to both parties. Superior hands prefer to 
work by the piece, and, when working for first-class stores, earn 
from $6 to $8 per week. There is a scarcity of good hands in New 
York, and I would advise some ladies to learn. Taste, and swift- 
ness of fingers are required. The finer and more delicate the 
hands of a worker the better. Some are employed all the year, 
but the majority are not. The busy season begins in January 
and lasts till the middle of May, and begins in September and 
lasts till the middle of October, when city work usually com- 
mences. Some houses, in the intervals, make up for the city trade. 
The South has depended almost entirely on the North for the 
supply of these articles. There will be openings in the South for 
establishments of the kind. One keeper of a large fancy store 
said to me, there are not more than ten first-class makers of dress 
caps in New York. He thought the Irish succeed, many of whom 
learn in the convents of their own country to use the needle well. 
Hands employed by the week usually work ten hours a day. 
Most people prefer to employ the hands they have had. The 
best place for learning is in a shop confined to the city trade. 
Mrs. D. devotes herself to making up caps for the dead, but em- 
ploys sewers to make ladies' dress caps. It requires time to get 
to making them tastefully and rapidly. An experienced hand 
can earn from $4 to $6 a week, piecework. It is thought three 
months' time is necessary for learning, and during that time a girl 
cannot earn over $1 a week. Mrs. D. says some can earn but 
eight or nine cents a day while learning, and become discouraged 
and give it up. She will not trust any but experienced hands, on 
account of the loss of materials, for when badly cut, they cannot 
be altered into anything else, and, when they have to be ripped, 
lose their stiffening, and are only fit for the scrap bag. They can 
soon judge of hands by their appearance, the way they sew, and 
knowing for whom they have worked, and the kind of work that 
house turns out. They always require reference or deposit. 
They keep their hands all the year, making caps part of the year 
foo send away, and the remainder of the year for city trade. 
Ladies' dress caps have been superseded to a great extent by fancy 
head dresses and flowers. Miss C, Broadway, told me her best 
hands earn, by the piece, from $6 to $7 per week. It requires 
three months to learn the business. Learners, that have some 
knowledge of sewing, receive from her §1 a week. Judgment, in 
size, form, and manner of putting together, is desirable. The 



328 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

busy seasons are spring and fall. There is rather a deficiency 
of good hands in New York, and in busy seasons it is sometimes 
difficult to get enough of indifferent hands. The French are very 
successful, on account of their cultivated taste. I was told that 
Mine. D. employs two Austrian girls that invent beautiful styles of 
head dresses. Mr. D. says the person that has the taste and in- 
genuity to invent pleasing styles will receive a good price. He 
had to pay $4 a dozen more for a new style of head dresses im- 
ported not long ago from Paris, merely because it was of a new 
design. He playfully remarked : " Fancy goods must bring fancy 
prices." A woman that has lived in Paris, and been engaged in 
the business there, and accustomed to observing the fashions and 
inventing them, would receive a high salary. He pays from $6 
to $9 a week, according to qualifications. The abilities and taste 
of a person have much to do with the time of learning — six 
months are usually given. He pays $3 a week to smart learners. 
He sells rather more goods in fall, as ladies are then preparing 
for balls and parties. He prefers to have foreigners to work for 
him, as he is himself a foreigner. His store girls leave at 6 p. m. 
Those that board pay $3 a week. In most stores for the sale of 
ladies' fancy articles, the ladies in attendance make up such arti- 
cles, when not waiting on customers. From a larger establish- 
ment, the superintendent sent me the following report : " Women 
earn from $4 to $10 per week, being paid by the piece. It re- 
quires from three months to one year to learn the business. 
After six weeks, the hands are paid a small trifle. Women are 
employed about eight months in the year, but first-class hands 
find employment always. In busy seasons the work must be done 
— so hands cannot limit themselves to time, but must be employed 
late and early. The demand for first-class hands is great, and 
enough cannot be found. I employ from one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred on an average. Most of my hands are foreigners, 
and married women that live at home." 

342. Pans. In most ages, and in most countries, the fan 
has been used as much by gentlemen as ladies. In Japan, every 
body carries a fan. " In M. Duveleroy's fan establishment — the 
largest in Paris — each fan, from the commonest to the most costly, 
passes through fifteen hands before it is ready for use and the re- 
tailer." The palm-leaf fans, which have been so much in vogue 
for years past, are made to some extent in the Eastern States. 
Fans are sometimes made of feathers. Peacock, duck, turkey, 
and those of small birds are employed. As in other manufac- 
tures, the capital required, the risk run, the want of operatives 
acquainted with the business, and the comparative highness of 
wages have hitherto debarred any one from undertaking the man- 



ladies' under- wear. o'2d 

ufacture of fans extensively in the United States. Taste is neces- 
sary for a fan maker. A man that has been making fans for two 
years in New York, told me he took it np from repairiDg fans. 
He cannot keep materials enough on hand, because suitable feath- 
ers are high and difficult to get. He is raising some peacocks 
and white turkeys, that he may have the feathers for making 
fans. The women he employed last year he paid by the piece, 
and they earned from $5 to $6 per w r eek. He will employ more 
women in the course of a year or two. 

343. Ladies' Under- Wear. A sempstress in New York 
can seldom earn more than seventy-five cents a day — fifty is the 
more usual sum. At Mrs. C. & Co.'s, all the work is done by 
hand. They employ by the week and by the piece. They will 
not allow goods to be taken out unless they know the person to 
be reliable, because they find it difficult to get work back at the 
time promised. They sell most articles made up, about Christ- 
mas, and in the spring. People do not have half so much sewing- 
done out as they used to, because so many own sewing machines, 
and they are not willing to pay the same prices that they formerly 
did. Some women that live and dress well in New York, take in 
sewing to obtain pinmoney. She mentioned one lady that came 
dressed in her elegant furs and point lace, and got sewing, she 
said, for a sick young friend ; but when she came back, she said 
the friend was not able to do it, and so she did it herself, and 

would like to have more. She lived in style on street. 

The cutters of under-wear, who are competent and responsible, can 
earn $6 per w r eek, and even more, but it requires considerable ex- 
perience. A lady that has sewing done told me that nothing pays 
so poorly as white work. She requires a sample of work and 
a deposit from any one that takes sewing out, to the amount 
of the value of the article. A lady that has most beautiful* un- 
der-wear made up for ladies in New York and in the South, 
told me her Southern orders have all ceased. Her work is mostly 
done by hand. She has a forewoman that bastes and cuts. She 
has not less than ten or twelve applicants every day for work. 
Some of her hands earn $5 or $6 a week, and others work just as 
long and do not earn $3. Some of her workers can earn $4 by 
embroidering, but sewing generally pays best. She pays her op- 
erator by the piece — so much a yard. Yfhen she had Southern 
orders, she sent goods by express, and the express collected the 
money on the goods. If the money was not paid by those who 
had ordered the goods, the express would not deliver them, but 
returned them. They were responsible for their return, in case 
they were not paid for. In the first place, something was paid 
for transmitting and collecting ; in the latter, for transmitting both 



330 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

ways. Many ladies used to send their measures and directions, 
and she would make up accordingly. She finds bridal apparel 
most profitable. In large cities there is a small demand for the 
costume of artists, sea bathers, and practisers of gymnastics. At 
the Employment House, B., I was told they have more applications 
than they can attend to, for plain sewing ; but fine sewing it is 
more difficult to get done. Fine sewing pays for itself very well, 
but coarse does not. At L. & T.'s, New York, they have every 
branch done, and pay sewers by hand as good prices as operators. 
A right neat and fast sempstress can earn $6 a week : it is piece- 
work. Operators can earn $5 or $6. Part of the work is done 
in the building, and part is given out. At first they found it dif- 
ficult to get superior sewers, but they have plenty now. They 
have sometimes employed 375 hands. About half their women 
are Americans. It is usual for the forewoman to do the cutting, 
and she can earn from $6 to $12. When they pay by the week, the 
girls work from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m., and have three fourths of an 
hour at noon. They pay by the week for making mantillas and 
cloaks. It is most profitable to the employees to pay by the 
piece. Their customers can rely on their work, and are willing 
to pay a good price for hand sewing. A lady that supplies under- 
wear told me that she finds it difficult to obtain any one that is 
reliable to give her work to — one that she can be sure will do 
her work well at the proper time. She pays those that work in 
the house $3 a week, of ten hours a day. Neatness, care, and ex- 
pedition, she requires of her hands. There is an abundance of 
indifferent hands, but a scarcity of superior ones. 

344. Over Gaiters. R., Philadelphia, employs fifty girls. 
Some of the gaiters are made by sewing machines, and some are 
stitched by hand. Makers earn from $3 to $5 a week. Most of 
the work is done in the establishment — some is taken out. 

345. Patterns. In large cities there is a constant call for 
a supply of new patterns ; consequently stores are kept for the pur- 
pose of cutting and selling them, A dress and cloak making es- 
tablishment is frequently connected with them. The sale of patterns 
to dress and cloak makers in the South and West is considerable 
— greater, perhaps, than that in the city. T., and Mme. D., are the 
leaders of this branch in New York. Mme. D. has in pattern 
making mostly young girls. A large room of young girls requires 
but two or three ladies to assist and direct. It takes but little 
time to learn. She does not pay until they have learned, and 
then pays young girls $1 a week and upward. T., son of the ed- 
itor of the Bon Ton y told me their fashion magazines have a cir- 
culation of three thousand, mostly among milliners and dress 
makers. The plates are colored in Paris. Leslie's and G-odey's 



SHOES. 331 

plates are colored in this country. T.'s takes six French publica- 
tions devoted to the fashions. They look over plates and select 
such styles as they think will be popular. They have a lady in 
Paris who writes to them from there, describing the fashions. 
They employ a lady in connection with their pattern making who, 
by lookiug at the plates, is able to cut out a mantle, sleeve, &c, 
exactly like the plates. Some ladies could never learn to do so. 
They employ ladies, both in pattern cutting and dress making, 
and pay from $3 to $5 per week — to a competent forewoman, $10 
and 815. Women are paid small wages while learning. Their 
business is advancing — has advanced most during the last few 
years. Their trade is Eastern, Western, and Southern — mostly 
Southern. Their girls are employed from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m. ; 
having an hour at noon. In the pattern business, there are just 
about enough of hands in New York. Spring and fall are the 
busy seasons. E. G. says the busy season commences the mid- 
dle of January, when she is willing to receive learners. She gives 
instruction for nothing for one month ; after that, she pays §2.50 
a week, if successful, and continues to increase salary according 
to the abilities of the individual. A good hand can earn $b per 
week, working ten hours a day. Another lady told me that in 
pattern making she gives instruction two months, paying nothing, 
but then they can earn $2.50, and, as they become more expert, 
can earn S3, 3.50, and $4. They are paid by the week, and 
it would be impossible to pay by the piece. It requires practice 
to become an expert cutter. She prefers, for pattern cutting, 
young girls from twelve to fifteen years old. In large cities, some 
women go around to cut patterns, sell stays, embroidery, &c. 

346. Shoes. The business of making and selling shoes 
opens a wide field of employment to women. The fashion, a few 
years back, of ladies making their own shoes, raged like a fever. 
Those that had leisure did so with economy, as the lasts and im- 
plements for working cost only $3, and the materials for a pair of 
shoes from sixty cents to §1. Afterward no further expense was 
needed but the materials. The fitting of shoes is basting, stitch- 
ing, and putting them together. Fitting is generally done by 
females, and is so simple that children can work at it. A good 
deal of this work is done in families at the East. Crimping 
and bottoming are done altogether by men. Some firms in cities 
confine themselves to importing and dealing in shoe-manufacturers' 
tools, materials, &c. In Massachusetts, most of the shoes are 
made in country towns, where living is much cheaper than in the 
cities ; and the business in cities is very much absorbed by for- 
eigners, that can live much cheaper than Americans. The prin- 
cipal defect in ready-made shoes is their imperfect shape. It 



332 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF "WOMEN. 

would be well for every adult to have a last made the exact shape 
of his or her foot, and keep it at the shoemaker's. " The appli- 
cation of machinery to the manufacture of shoes has made so 
vast a difference in the ease and rapidity of their production that 
those engaged in the business can scarcely realize the advantage 
they possess, and before they are aware of it they are in the way 
of creating a surplus. The effect of this change in their produc- 
tion will be to lessen the number of manufacturers and opera- 
tives." Says a writer in the Pennsylvania Inquirer : " Individ- 
uals that are prominent in the shoe business assert that about 
2,000 females are employed in Philadelphia in binding shoes or 
sewing uppers ; but they do not obtain steady work, and the 
average of their wages is only $75 to $100 per annum." Four 
thousand two hundred men are employed in Philadelphia in mak- 
ing women's shoes. Might not a large part of that work be done 
by women ? Yes ; the cutting, binding, stitching — indeed, the 
entire making of ladies' shoes might be done by women. Most 
of the stitching is now done by machines, The most depressed 
trades in New York, in 1845, were those of shoe and shirt mak- 
ing. From the New York Tribune of May, 1853, we take the 
subjoined extract : " The binding of children's shoes is paid for 
at the rate of two pairs for three cents, or eighteen cents a dozen 
pair ; while for the full size, five cents a pair. Now a first-rate 
hand may succeed, by the closest application — say from fourteen 
to seventeen hours a daj^, if uninterrupted by domestic cares — in 
making, during the week, four dozen pairs, for which, after deliv- 
ery and approval, she will be paid $2.40, that being the maximum 
paid, and representing the value of not less than eighty hours' 
labor ; .and from this miserable dole the cost of light and fire is to be 
deducted. We are not prepared to say this sum is never exceeded, 
as some houses may pay a slight advance on these prices ; but it 
is more than sufficient for us to know that this is above the aver- 
age that hundreds of women and girls in this city (New York) 
are earning from that source." We have seen it stated, else- 
where, that good shoebinders, in New York, usually earn from 
$4 to $7 a week. I talked with a shoe fitter in New York, who 
works for a large and fashionable store and emplo}^ a number of 
hands. Some of her operators have $6 a week, and have better 
wages than hand workers, because they can do more work in the 
same time. As sewing machines become cheaper, wages for work 
done by them will fall. Shoemakers made more money before 
ladies wore heels on their shoes, as they wore out more. Mrs. L, 
a shoe fitter, told me that she pays one of her hands $7, another 
$6, and none less than $4. It requires about six months for most 
women to learn the trade. The business is one that will extend. 



shoes. 333 

Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. Her hands usually 
spend but nine hours a day at labor, us stitching shoes is heavy 
work. Men usually do the cutting in the back of the store, and 
receive better wages than the women. The cutting is done by 
hand. Her workers pay $2.50 f or board. There is a scarcity 
of good operators on uppers. Plenty of indifferent hands can be 
had at any time. She says American women are too fond of 
pleasure and dress. They make money, and then must have a day 
or two to rest. She was an Irish woman. The journeymen 
shoemakers of New York have an association for regulating 
prices and hours of work, and a lady branch was started, but has 
become extinct. A shoebinder in Brooklyn told me that he em- 
ploys a number of girls, paying his operatives 13, $4, $5, and 
some even $6 per week. The machines have taken work from 
many, and lowered the prices of those that do it by hand. To 
make fancy shoes requires taste and judgment. The late strikes 
have given us, through the newspapers, some reliable information 
in regard to the starving rates paid for work, and wages have been 
somewhat increased by it. I heard a shoemaker say he knew one 
sewer that received forty cents for a week's work, stitching sixty 
pairs of gaiters. Two cents is what some of the Massachusetts 
women received for binding a pair of boots. Yet the consumer 
must pay as high for boots and shoes as ever. The reason given 
is, that leather costs more than formerly — a statement we are led 
to doubt when considering the increased facilities for tanning. 
An intelligent shoe fitter told me the prices of work were formerly 
much higher than now. The work that would formerly have 
brought fifty cents is now not paid more than twenty-five cents. 
Mrs. B. says well-dressed women sometimes come and bring 
what they say is a sample of their work. A few pairs will be 
given them to make, which they will bring in poorly stitched. 
She thinks any one in the shoe-making business that does her 
work well t?an always find employment. " In Ohio, several 
women are employed as shoemakers, and others are working inde- 
pendently and successfully, evincing both taste and ability in 
their elegant and substantial work." A manufacturer in Albany, 
N. Y., writes : " I employ ten women running sewing machines, 
binding by hand, and stitching with wax-thread and awl. I pay 
mostly by the piece, and my hands earn from $2 to $5 per week. 
Women cannot do men's labor in our branch. Learners are paid 
what they earn. Mechanical talent is a desirable qualification. 
The prospect for extension of the business is necessarily poor. 
Prison work is interfering much with our craft. Women can 
have steady work, if employers manage prudently. Women that 
work with awl and wax thread are mostly foreign." The returns 



*334 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

of 1860 give 56,039 males and 24,978 females employed in mak- 
ing boots and shoes in New England ; and in all the States, 
96,287 males and 31,140 females. In Dublin, about five hundred 
women are employed in eight of the large establishments of that 
city in boot closing, and earn on an average eight shillings per 
week, of nine hours a day. 

347. Stays and Corsets. At Mrs. B.'s, Philadelphia, 
I was told women are paid by the dozen for making corsets, and 
earn from $2 to $3 a week. They mostly take their work home. 
At a place in New York, I was told they have sewing machines, 
and they pay operators $4 a week, working from 7^ a. m. to 1\ 
p. m. Those that sew for them by hand do not earn so much. It 
is difficult to get enough of good hands; so the lady thought 
there must be openings for competent workers. Girls get $4 a 
week for basting. Their girls are of all nations. Every store, 
she remarked, has its own way of doing business. It takes some 
time to learn to do all parts, as a girl usually works at some 
special part. A man does the cutting. One corset maker thinks 
it a valuable gift to be able to fit well. She considers corsets 
necessary to the preservation of health. American children, by 
their restlessness, counteract the effects of their rapid growth. 
Miss C. told me those that work for wholesale houses can, if good 
hands, find work all the year. They are paid by the piece, 
and can earn from $3 to $6. It requires three or four years to 
learn all parts. Her girls cannot take their work home. Few 
are willing to take learners. At another place, I was told a good 
operator can get $6 a week. They sell most women corsets of 
French and German make. The French fit American ladies 
nearly as well as those made to order, but the German do not. 
At another place, I was told it requires but a short time to learn. 
There are but few manufactories in this country. The imported 
corsets are mostly sold, because cheapest. The basters get $3 a 
week, ten hours a day, and operators $4, and $4.50, according to 
abilities. Mrs. B. thinks it difficult to become a good fitter. 
She employs men to cut, put bones and eyelets in, and press. 
Anybody that can sew well can soon take up corset making. All 
her sewing is done by hand. She sends her work to the country, 
because she can get it done more cheaply. The work pays poorly. 
She says the form is retained much longer by wearing corsets. 
A lady who employs women to stitch corsets for her by hand, pays 
from $2.50 to §3. 50 a week — ten working hours a day. It re- 
quires six months to learn, and a just eye, a knowledge of figure, 
and an ability to sew by hand and stitch by machine, to succeed. 
She says most corset employers in New York are French, and 
employes Irish. She thought, if a lady has good apartments in 



STRAW WORKERS. 335 

a genteel part of the city, she may do well. Mrs. B., who has 
been twenty-three years carrying on the business on Broadway, 
says " she has applications constantly, but finds it difficult to ob- 
tain competent workmen. Men are practical corset makers, and 
do the cutting. They are better able to cut the goods, so as to 
make a handsome fit. They receive better wages than women. 
It is a business as much to be learned as cutting gentlemen's 
coats. She pays both by the piece and week, and her hands re- 
ceive from $3 to $8. Some of the stitching is done by machinery 
— some by hand. It requires about the same time to learn corset 
as dress making. Learners receive from her from $1.50 to $2 
per week. She thinks the supply of hands just equal to the 
demand. She employs from 100 to 150 hands. They are mostly 
from Great Britain. The business is dependent on fashion. 
Spring and fall are the busy seasons. In summer, she does not 
sell so much, because ladies are then out of town ; but the em- 
ployes can work all the year, and do so, as she keeps a stock on 
hand. Corsets are more worn now than a few years back. A 
manufacturer in Boston writes : <c I employ ten American women 
in sewing on corsets. They work by the piece, and average sixty 
cents per day. The prospect of future employment is not flatter- 
ing. Board, $2.25." Another manufacturer in Boston " pays 
from $3 to $4.50, and says it is all he can afford to pay. His 
hands work ten hours a day. The prospect for this work is good. 
July and August are the dullest months. He has found women 
equal to men in all branches of business they conduct. Board, 
$2.50." 



STEAW WOKKEKS. 

348. Bleachers and Pressers. I called in a place 
where I saw the pressing of bonnets and children's hats. The 
rims of the hats were pressed by a woman with a large iron, the 
crowns by a man with an iron attached to a lever fastened in a 
frame. It is all piecework, and some can earn from $4 to $5 a 
week. I have been told that Mrs. K., New York, employs 
women pressers. The iron is not so heavy for bonnet pressing 
as for hats, but requires too much strength for a woman. Shap- 
ing straw bonnets is done by women — that is, placing them on 
blocks and pinning them around the edge, after they have been 
bleached, until they acquire shape. A man pressing straw hats, 
told me he is paid 5 cents a hat, and can press sixty in ten hours. 
The time for learning either to sew or bleach, I find, is usually 



336 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

six weeks. Mrs. M. pays learners nothing for six weeks. Her 
busy seasons are from October to last of November, and from 
December to spring. It is all piecework, and her girls earn 
from $3 to $4. A bleacher of straw hats employs a lady at $5 
per week to alter and wire bonnets, after they have been bleach- 
ed, which is done by her own family. She works ten hours a day. 
The work is mostly confined to spring and fall. The bleaching 
process is very deleterious, owing to the sulphur used. It pro- 
duces a loss of vitality and shortens life. A stout, healthy man, 
in the course of a year, becomes quite pale and thin. The bleach- 
ing does not require all the time of any one. The bonnets and 
hats are put into the bleaching room, and, when they have be- 
come white, are taken out. 

349. Braiders. The following is from the New York 
Tribune^ of 1845 : " The Amazonia braid weavers — a large and 
ill-paid class of working females — begin work at seven in the 
morning, and continue until seven in the evening, with no inter- 
mission save to swallow a hasty morsel. They earn, when in full 
employment, $2 and $2.50 a week. Out of this, they must pay 
their board and washing (for they have no time to wash their 
own clothes), medical and other incidental expenses, and pur- 
chase their clothes — to say nothing of the total absence of all 
healthy recreation, and of all mental and moral culture, which 
such a condition necessarily implies. They have, many of them, 
no rooms of their own, but board with some poor family, sleeping 
anyhow, and anywhere. For these accommodations they pay 
$1.50 per week, some of the lowest and filthiest boarding houses 
charging as low as $1 per week. The living here must be 
imagined." At Foxboro', Franklin, Middleboro', and Nan- 
tucket, Mass., are straw manufactories. "In 1855, 6,000,000 
straw hats and bonnets were made in Massachusetts, giving 
employment to ten thousand of her people." Eye straw is raised 
in all the New England States. It is cut, soaked in water (I 
think split), and then dried. It is sold by the pound — then 
braided by women and children for 10 or 12 cents a day. It is 
mostly done in farmers' families, who are at but little expense for 
living. In this state, it is mostly sold to merchants or agents, 
who sell it at manufactories, where it is trimmed by machinery, 
and then sewed. It is then shaped into bonnets, wired, pressed, 
and bleached, the crowns are lined with paper, and they are 
packed ready for exportation. The women earn on an average 
$5 a week. In England, wheat straw is raised, which is inferior to 
rye straw. N. says the largest straw-bonnet establishments of Eng- 
land are not as large as those of the United States. For making 
straw hats in Philadelphia, men receive $7.50 a week, and women 



STRAW SEWEES. 337 

$4.50. Philadelphia is said to spend $6,000,000 annually in the 
manufacture of straw goods. At H.'s, New York, they employ 
from fifty to one hundred hands. It is usual to have learners six 
weeks for nothing, and then pay full wages, if they prove com- 
petent. Work is given about ten months. They are paid by 
the piece, and can earn from $4 to $6 per week. In December, 
they begin to make up hats and bonnets for spring. A milliner 
told me she pays her braiders by the yard. Some earn $4 a 
week, and some even $5. They work at home. The summer 
season is over by September. H. writes : " In my opinion the 
best arranged industrial establishment is the Union Straw 
Works at Foxboro', Mass. High wages, cushioned arm-chairs, 
a literary society which carries on the lyceum lectures of the 
town, are all far above any of our factories. The proprietor would 
not call it a factory, to make it more attractive. Out of three 
hundred operatives, sometimes, seventy-five have been teachers." 
350. Sewers. Mrs. K. employs about seventy -five girls for 
bleaching and sewing braid and straw bonnets. She pays some 
$3, some $3.50, and some $4 a week. They work ten hours. 
All live at home, but bring their dinners. She bleaches by the 
old-fashioned process with sulphur, and has men to do the press- 
ing. N. & Co. employ about one hundred and twenty-five on 
an average six months, and .about twenty -five all the year. The 
bonnet business has increased very much during the last few 
years. At B.'s, I was told the wholesale work for the South 
begins in November ; but the city work, the last of March, and 
continues to July. It is light work, and does not require close 
application of the eyes. Machinery can never be used for sew- 
ing straw, because long stitches answer, and straw is too brittle. 
Persons of a nervous temperament are often the most intellectual. 
Such females make good straw sewers. It requires a peculiar 
adaptability, as every other occupation does. Everybody can- 
not learn to sing or to paint — just so some cannot make good 
straw sewers. He thinks most young work-people in New York 
do not live at home, and considers obedience to parents and 
observance of the Sabbath the foundation of success in life. 
B — s, of Connecticut, write : " Women are employed in this 
country, and in Italy, France, and England, in sewing straw. 
Our girls (150) are mostly paid by the piece, and earn from $3 
to $7 per week. They also trim straw hats. They spend four 
weeks as learners, and are paid $2 a week while learning. To 
be a fast sewer is the most important requisite. The prospect 
of a continuance of this work is good. The busy season is from 
September to June. The best locations are near New York and 
Boston," " About 200 persons are employed in the straw 
15 



338 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

factory at Nantucket. Some of the operatives are daughters of 
the leading men of the town, and make $5 a week at the 
business." A firm at Middleboro', Mass., write : " We em- 
ploy 850 women, and have them in preference to men, because 
they are more dexterous with the needle. They receive from 30 
cents to $1.62 per day, and are paid mostly by the piece. Women 
are paid five eighths what the men receive, but could not perform 
their labor even at the same price. Learners make enough to 
pay their board the first three weeks. Good mechanical talent 
is needed in a learner. They have work about nine months in 
the year — generally stop July, August, and November. Nine 
tenths are Americans; seven eighths live at home. A large number 
of them are not dependent upon labor for a living. Board, $2 
to $2.25." From a factory in Wrentham, Mass., we have 
the following report : " We employ during the winter season, in 
the factory, from seventy-five to one hundred females, and in 
families who work at home about six hundred, whose pay is 
not so good by about one third. Some of our workers are paid by 
the piece — some by the hour. Most of them can earn $1 a day, 
twelve hours being a day for females. Men are paid 15 cents 
an hour ; good help extra, and poor, less. They work ten hours. 
For the part done by women, we pay the same price from the 
first, but their work is not received until it is well done. A 
person is employed to give them instruction ; five or six weeks' 
practice mostly makes a good sewer of one who can learn at all. 
During this time most girls earn half wages. To good help we 
usually give work nine months in the year. Busy seasons from 
December 1st till June 1st, and from July 15th to October 1st. 
The rest of the year, work is given out at reduced prices — suf- 
ficient to earn about half wages. All American women. It is 
desirable for manufacturers to be near New York city, so as to 
keep posted on styles. Many ladies choose this business after 
teaching school for years. Most of our hands come from Maine, 
and board in houses provided for them, paying $2 a week." 
Another straw manufacturer informs me " the girls in straw 
shops earn more than in most other kinds of business, they being, 
as a general thing, smarter girls, and such as would not work in 
cotton and other large mills. Their work varies much, as the 
styles and materials change." A firm employing about eighty 
American girls write : " They are paid according to their skill 
and smartness, from $2.50 to $10 per week. Two thirds work by 
the piece — half will earn $5 to $6.50 — average about $4.50 per 
week. Male labor will average double. It cannot be done by 
females — they are not strong enough. The reason of women's 
being paid low wages is the surplus of female labor. They can- 



BENOVATOKS OF GENTLEMEN^ WEAR. 339 

not be hired to do housework — it is too confining. It requires 
one month, more or less, according to taste and genius, to learn 
the work. Good references as to character are required, and 
some skill with the needle, and an idea of form. Busy from Decem- 
ber to June, and from August to November. We do nothing 
for about three months. Hands hired by the week are paid 
extra for overwork. If we could not give them the amount of 
work they have, the best help would go elsewhere. There is 
always plenty of help in this branch in New York, and they get 
work done for much less, but by a different caste of girls. In 
the New England States, girls are generally brought up to work, 
whether rich or poor, and we can get help from the best families, 
well educated and intelligent — while in some States we could 
not find them. Board, $2.25 to $2.50." A straw firm in Frank- 
lin, Mass., write : " We employ about 400 females — 60 of 
them in our manufactory — the remainder work at their homes. 
The former have the privilege of working from 6 A. m. to 9 p. m. ; 
but as they work by the piece, they are not confined to any 
particular time. The latter accommodate themselves. Few 
get less than 80 cents per diem, and many can earn over $1 — some 
over $1.50. All are paid by the piece, except overseers. Males 
and females are never employed in the same kind of labor. 
Females make and trim bonnets and hats — males bleach, block, 
and press them, which is too laborious work for females. Some 
years would be required to learn to conduct the straw business 
successfully. Some females will make a very good bonnet or hat 
after a few weeks' practice. Others take a longer time, and a 
few will never make a good bonnet. Our practice is to pay all 
while learning. The qualifications required by us are a good 
character, good health, skill in the use of the needle, and a desire 
to acquire proficiency. The supply of hands is always greater than 
the demand. All the females employed in straw factories 
are American. Our girls have access to a good library, lectures, 
&c. Those employed in manufacturing board at $2.25 per 
week, including washing. Boarding houses attached to the dif- 
ferent straw manufactories in this town are of good character and 
comfortable." 



EENOYATOES. 

351- Gentlemesfs Wear. A dyer and scourer of 
gentlemen's clothing told me she charges 37 cents for scouring 
and pressing a pair of pantaloons ; 75 cents for a coat, and $1 for 



340 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

an overcoat. A woman could make a omfortable living at it if 
she had constant employment. 

352. [Ladies' Wear. The cleaning of kid gloves saves 
quite an item in the purses of the wearers. Wooden frames, the 
shape and size of gloves, are used for drying them on. The 
renovating of silk shawls, dresses, and other goods is best done by 
the French. They are sometimes made to look almost as bright and 
clean as if they were new. Woollen goods, too, that will not bear 
washing, are beautifully cleaned by those that rightly understand 
the business. All that profess to, by the way, do not. Prices 
vary, of course, according to goods, places, and renovators. 
Women are mostly engaged in this business. A cleaner of kid 
gloves writes : " I employ some women with pens and needles at 
$3 per week, working from four to six hours per day. Cool 
weather is the best for work, but they are employed all the year." 
Mrs. C. told me that her husband and his men clean most gloves 
in winter ; they can clean them in two days. I noticed they are 
free from any offensive odor. They pass through the hands 
several times. She charges individuals 12^ cents a pair — store- 
keepers less. She has been many years at it. They used to send 
a wagon and collect them from the stores, but their business does 
not warrant it now — so they send a messenger. As many have 
attempted that do not thoroughly understand it, the business has 
been injured. 



GENTLEMEN'S CLOTHING. 

353. Army and Navy Uniform. Our Government 
might do something toward bringing about a reform in the 
prices paid women. If those who have clothing made for the 
men of the army and navy would pay good prices to men of 
standing, that pay their workwomen well, we think some good 
might be done. At any rate, they would set a good example. 

354. Buttons. The making of buttons is chiefly done by 
women, and affords employment for a great many. The proportion 
of women to men in this branch of industry is six to one. Some 
kinds of buttons are made by hand, but most by machinery, 
moved by steam. The manufacture of cloth for buttons is a 
distinct branch of business. It was estimated in 1851 that five 
thousand persons were employed in Birmingham in the manufac- 
ture of buttons of different kinds, more than half of whom were 
women and children. In the manufacture of buttons a variety 



ARMY AND NAVY BUTTONS. 341 

of hands are employed — piercers, cutters, stampers, gilders, and 
varnishers. " In a factory employing five men and thirty fe- 
males, from six to seven hundred gross of buttons can be turned 
out daily." I called in a factory where buttons were made of 
vegetable ivory. I think all the work could be done by women, 
but it is a trade, and requires three years to learn all the parts. 
One man might be needed to put the machinery in order when 
it would get out of repair. Boys that polish buttons are paid 
from $2 to $3 a week. Polishing looks simple, but, no doubt 7 
requires practice. A little girl, whose father makes common 
horn buttons, says he employs some small girls who, by presses, 
cut out the buttons and make the perforations. They are paid 
seven cents for a thousand. Her parents assort them. H. & 
C, manufacturers of cloth and gilt buttons, say it requires some 
weeks to learn to chase the gilt buttons, which are done with 
small metal tools and a hammer. Chasers are paid by the piece, 
working ten hours a day, and some can earn $1 a day. Those 
that make cloth buttons work by the week, eleven hours a day. 
They pay nothing while the person is learning. They think the 
prospect of employment in that branch is good. (I think it must 
be, for it is a manufacture likely to extend.) They employ their 
hands all the year. The girls sit while at work. S. has girls to 
do most of the work in making men's coat buttons. They 
cut out the iron and cloth with machines, and also cover 
the buttons with machines. The girls require but a few 
weeks to learn. They are paid from $1.75 to $3 a week. Some 
of the girls are not more than twelve years of age. The average 
of the oldest girls is $2.75. They work ten hours. Learners 
are paipl half wages. Good eyesight and smart fingers are needed. 
The gilding of brass buttons is called water gilding, though no 
water is used. The mercury and nitric acid used in gilding 
metal buttons renders the business pernicious to the health, the 
fumes of the nitric acid affecting the lungs, and the mercury pro- 
ducing its peculiar disease. A manufacturer of tin buttons 
writes : " Our women earn from 75 cents to $1 per day, and are 
paid by the piece. It requires but little practice to learn. All 
are American girls from neighboring families." A manufacturer 
in Middlefield, Conn., writes : " We employ from twenty-five to 
thirty girls in cutting, drilling, sorting, and packing buttons. 
They work by the piece, and average $15 per month. While 
learning they are paid $1 per week, and their board. They have 
regular work, and pay for board $1.50 per week. The prospect 
for an increase of the manufacture is fair." A button company 
in Waterbury write : " Our hands receive $3 and upward, as 
they are worth. The business is good when times are good. 



842 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN". 

The majority are Americans. Spring and fall are the best 
seasons." A buttonmaker in Morrisville, Pa., writes : " We pay 
our girls by the gross, and they earn from $1 to $4 per week. 
Men earn from $3 to $9. The women's work is lighter. Be- 
ginners are paid small wages. The prospect of future work is 
poor. Seasons make no difference in the work." 

355. Canes. Walking canes could be painted and varnish- 
ed by women. I have been told that, in France, women are em- 
ployed in making ivory, gold, whalebone, and wire heads for 
canes. Mrs. F. makes whalebone heads for canes. She offered to 
teach me how for $20. P. says he pays from $6 to $100 a dozen 
for the heads of canes— ivory, silver, and gold. The work is mostly 
done by Germans. The business will not pay except in large cities. 
There are only six in the business in New York, which is the 
main depot. He sells most to Southerners and Canadians. The 
business requires a regular apprenticeship. Making and putting 
on the heads could be done by women, if they were instructed, 
but there would not be enough of it to justify more than a few 
in learning. The South offers the best opening. 

356. Caps 3 Cap makers receive very different prices for 
their work, depending on the quality of the material and work, 
and the house for which the work is done. There are between 
eight hundred and one thousand capmakers in Philadelphia 
They are said to average S3 a week. Freedley says : " In Phila- 
delphia, there are a large number of concerns occupied exclusively 
in making caps; those of cloth constituting the chief part of the 
business, though plush, silk, glazed, and other caps are also 
made. The cap manufacture employs a large number of females, 
whose wages in the business will average about $4 per week. 
Sewing machines are largely employed ; being, in fact, indispen- 
sable in consequence of the expansion of the trade. The annual 
production is about $400,000." A few years ago there were 
five thousand cap makers in New York city. Many of the cheap 
caps in New York are furnished by Jews, who get them done 
very cheaply. They not only do much to supply the home de- 
mand for caps, but export large quantities. They sell some caps 
for from $1 to $1.50 a dozen. B. pays his cap makers, some $5, 
some $6 a week. When business is dull the work is divided, so 
that all hands are retained, and have something to do. Caps 
are mostly made by German men on sewing machines. Some 
Germans take fifty or sixty dozen a week from a store, and employ 
girls to make them up. They are middlemen, and cut out the 
goods. In New York, almost every branch of business seems to 
have its own locality — that of the hat and cap manufacturers is on 
the lower part of Broadway. A good hand can earn about $3.50 



caps. 343 

a week of 10 hours a day, or by working fifteen or sixteen hours, 
which many of them do, can earn $8 or $9. Working girls gen- 
erally receive about $3 a week. They pay $2 for board. The 
remaining $1 is almost consumed in shoes. Nearly all are at 
times out of employment. In New York, by constant labor, fif- 
teen or sixteen hours a day, some cap makers can earn only from 
fourteen to twenty-five cents. " We were told by an old lady 
who has lived by this kind of work a long time, that when she 
begins at sunrise, and works till midnight, she can earn fourteen 
cents a day. A large majority of these women are American 
born, from the great middle class of life, many of whom have 
once been in comfortable, and even affluent circumstances, and 
have been reduced by the death or bankruptcy of husbands and 
relatives, and other causes, to such straits. Many of them are 
the wives of shipmasters, and other officers of vessels. Others 
are the widows of mechanics and poor men, and have children, 
and mothers and fathers, &c, to support by their needle. Many 
have drunken husbands to add to their burdens and afflictions, 
and to darken every faint gleam of sunshine that domestic affec- 
tion throws even into the humblest abode. Others have sick and 
bedridden husbands or children, or perhaps have to endure the 
agony of receiving home a fallen daughter, or an outlawed son, 
suddenly checked in his career of vice.' S., of S. & Co., told 
me they take learners when they can make good use of them. 
The business, some time back, in New York, was over done, but for 
the last three or four years the supply has not more than met 
the demand. It is piecework. A first-class hand can, in busy 
seasons, make $10, but many are not swift with the needle, and 
cannot earn more than $3 a week. They give out some of their 
work. All that can be, he has done by machines. H, & H. 
have their caps made by machines. It is piecework, and a good 
hand can earn from $6 to $9 a week. In a cloth and fancy cap 
store, I was told the girls earn $4, $5, and $6 a week. Few 
people are willing to take learners, as the season, six weeks, is 
nearly consumed by the time the trade is learned, and the in- 
structor gets nothing for his time and trouble. Children's fancy 
caps cannot be made by machine. They are usually piecework. 
To make them requires taste. Six weeks is the length of time 
usually given to learning the trade. A.'s caps are made by ma- 
chines. Good hands earn $5, $6, and $7. His hands are busy 
only in spring. He takes learners at that time, and pays from the 
first, $2 or $3 a week. D., formerly a cap maker, told me that 
P — s have some of their caps made on Blackwell's Island, by the 
convicts. B. told me the greater part of the cap is made by sew- 
ing machines tended by men, but the finishing, lining, &c, is done 



344 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN - . 

by women, either at home or on the premises. They are paid by 
the dozen, and can earn from 15 to $6 a week. Some have re- 
ceived even more, but as the work was taken home, it cannot be 
known with certainty that one person did it all. The first year 
they work at caps of an inferior quality, for which they receive 
fifty cents a dozen ; girls of average ability, can then take the 
better kind of cap, and of course the wages increase according to 
the degree of proficiency. A cap maker told me, good hands can 
have steady work all the year. The best season for work is when 
manufacturing for the fall trade, which is generally in the months 
of June, July, August, September, and part of October, and, for 
the spring trade, in March and April. Another told me he pays 
by the dozen, and his hands earn from $4 to $7 a week. A 
maker of cap fronts, New York, told me he pays his girls from 
$3 to $7, working ten hours a day. From July to November are 
the best seasons — May and June the poorest months. Cutting 
out is done by hand, and requires too much strength for women. 
Some men cut out fifty dozen caps a day. It is done with a 
knife of a peculiar shape, and several thicknesses of the cloth are 
out at once. Women are not so employed where the business is 
done on a large scale. Some cutters earn $24 a week. A cut- 
ter should have taste and skill, as he is also expected to design 
patterns. The English style for caps is sometimes adopted, and 
the most of gentlemen's clothing is of the English style, in New 
York ; butt he ladies prefer French fashions for themselves. An 
extensive manufacturer of cap fronts and other trimmings, in 
New York, writes : " I have about twenty-five females employed, 
the majority of whom sew at home. The occupation is perfectly 
healthy, easy, and comfortable. I pay by the piece, and the 
workers earn from $3 to $6 per week. Any woman that can sew 
and has ordinary intelligence can learn it in three hours. There 
is no prospect for increase, but constant employment for those 
already engaged. Spring and fall are the busy seasons, but em- 
ployment is given all the year. I can always get ten times the 
help I require in this branch : four or five years ago we paid 
much better wages, but competition regulates (unfortunately) the 
scale of wages. Experience tells me women are inferior to men 
employees, in regard to promptness in coming to the shop, and in 
having the articles completed at stated times, when required for 
shipment. But I find them superior to men in refinement, tem- 
perance, decorum, attachment to the interest of their employers, 
&c., when unmixed with the male sex. I formerly employed 
women on sewing machines, and when first started in that branch, 
they made from $8 to $10 per week, although, since the last three 
years, goods are sold so much cheaper, as to reduce the wages 



COATS — CKAVATS — HATS. 345 

from $5 to $8. In Detroit, Mich., cap makers get from five to 
twenty- three cents a cap for making, and can earn from $2 to 
$4 per week. 

357. Coats. We were told by one that ought to know, 
that many of the gentlemen's coats seen on Broadway are made 
by women. We believe that women of intelligence and judg- 
ment, if properly instructed, could make the greater part, if not 
the whole of gentlemen's coats. Much of the tailors' work of 
New York is distributed through the country, because it can be 
made cheaper. Many men make it a business, as agents, to dis- 
tribute, collect, and pay for such work. Men press seams and 
sew the heaviest cloth, because they have more strength. What 
magnificent buildings there are in New York devoted to the sale 
of gentlemen's wear ! But to think they are made of the sinews 
and muscles and tears and sighs of hardworking women, and to 
see the clerks in the stores, with nothing to do but receive and 
wait on customers, while those poor girls on the fifth floor are 
toiling from early morn to dark to earn less than one half of 
those clerks ! What a hard life most women lead ! 

358= Cravats. W. & D. usually employ fifty hands,. 
Part of the work is done in the store, on the fourth and fifth 
floors. Cravats pay well, and a good hand can earn from $6 to 
$18 a week, piecework. Most of their work is done by ma- 
chine and finished by hand. Those of their hands who take work 
home, do it when not occupied with home duties. The gentleman 
with whom I talked, thought a person would not be able to sup- 
port herself by that kind of work alone. They have been able 
to keep their hands all the year. Another cravat maker told me 
he has employed hands all the year, and had most of his cravats 
made by machines. A great many have been made in Baltimore. 
M. & Co. give some work out and have some done at the store. 
They are most busy in spring and fall, but keep some hands all 
the year. They can always get plenty of hands. They take 
learners, and pay from the first, but not so much, of course. 
Week workers earn from $4 to $5 — ten hours a day in summer, 
rather less in winter. Those that work by the piece can earn 
from $8 to $9, for they work faster at home and sew in the even- 
ings. Part of their work is done by machine and part by hand. 
They usually import the material. Most of this work is confined 
to New York, and has been a separate branch but a few years. In 
Detroit, girls earn from $2.50 to $3.50 a week making cravats. 

359. Hats. We will give an extract from " The Art and 
Industry of the Crystal Palace " : " In the manufacture of hats 
in the United States, there are twenty-four thousand persons em- 
ployed : one half of them are men, and the remainder women. 
15* 



346 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

The consumption of straw hats amounts to about $1,500,000, 
about half of which are imported. The capital invested in the 
hatting trade in this country is little short of $8,000,000. The 
number of trimmers in New York are four hundred. There is 
no branch of industry in which the rate of wages is so fluctuat- 
ing; no trade reflecting so faithfully the depressed or prosperous 
condition of the country. There are between fifty and sixty fin- 
ishing shops in New York. There is no general understanding 
between the shops as to a fixed rate of payment. It is a pecu- 
liarity of the trade, that a person seeking employment never 
addresses himself to the principal ; he goes direct to the fore- 
man." Silk and felt hats are most worn in the United States. 
We find there is great objection by the workmen to the use of 
machinery. Some factories confine their work exclusively to the 
making of hat bodies. The manufacture of hatters' trimmings 
forms, in large cities, a distinct branch of business. " In C.'s 
hat manufactory, in London, fifteen hundred hands are employed, 
two hundred of whom are females. Among the processes by 
which a beaver hat is produced, women and girls are there em- 
ployed in the following : Plucking the beaver skins ; cropping 
off the fur ; sorting various kinds of wool ; plucking and cutting 
rabbits' wool ; shearing the nap of the blocked hat (in some in- 
stances) ; picking out defective fibres of fur ; and trimming." 
Women in our country could be employed in bowing the fur, 
pressing it with a hatter's basket, folding it in a damp cloth, roll- 
ing, rubbing, working it with the hands, and dipping it in hot 
water. The last operation is a very warm one. As it is, we 
know of no department in which they are employed, except that 
of carding, binding, lining, trimming, and tip gilding. Binding 
and lining are much done by them. The work is light, genteel, 
and rather profitable, and can be done at home. When done in 
factories, the workers cannot be so neat, on account of the dust, 
the large number of operatives in a room, and the coloring matter 
that rubs off the hats. All employers have reported it healthy, 
and I suppose it is as much so as any sedentary occupation, unless 
from causes mentioned in the preceding sentence. A hatter in 
Philadelphia told us he employs girls to line and bind men's hats. 
They are paid 75 cents a dozen for felt hats, and $1.25 for silk 
hats. Girls can earn as much as $6 a week at it. It requires a 
couple of months' apprenticeship. There is work for steady hands 
all the year. We have seen it stated that " hat trimmers in Phila- 
delphia average $3.50 per week. They number from eight hun- 
dred to one thousand females. Hat binders usually spend six 
weeks learning their trade." The war department, about two 
years ago, closed a contract with S;, of Philadelphia, to furnish 



HATS. 347 

sixteen thousand felt hats for the army, at $2.75 each." They 
make all qualities of hats at P.'s, Brooklyn, from those at 75 cents 
a dozen to those at $50 a dozen. The linings of the cheapest felt 
hats are put in by machines operated on by steam, the others by 
hand. I saw girls also laying gold leaf on muslin, which was 
stamped by a machine, forming the ornamental work and figures 
seen in the crown lining of cheap hats. These workers were 
called tip gilders. All except the box makers and tip gilders sit 
while at work. Girls at lining and binding can earn from $2.50 
to $7. (I think he set his last mark high.) It is piecework, as 
everything, I believe, in that line is. Some girls have worked in 
P.'s factory eight years or more. The business is learned in a 
short time. Operators are paid at the same rate as hand sewers ; 
but if any difference is made, it is in favor of operators. For 
hand workers, care and ability to sew well are the principal requi- 
sites. The hands have work all the year, but in midsummer and 
midwinter may do only three fourths of the usual quantity for a 
week or two. Hatters who manufacture in Brooklyn and sell in 
New York, told me they employ five hundred women, who are 
paid by the piece. Those that sew receive from $5 to $6, machine 
operatives from $8 to $9. A knowledge of sewing and taste, in 
finishing hats, is desirable. The business will extend. Three 
times as many hats are sold as fifteen years ago. Some parts of 
hat making are performed by machinery that could not be man- 
aged by women. The West and Northwest of the United States 
present good openings for this business. Manufactories, of course, 
must be where there is plenty of water. At a hatter's in New 
York, I was told that they pay 14 cents for trimming a hat of 
any kind, coarse or fine, silk or felt; but sometimes pay only 10 
cents. Their binder often makes $7 a week. At B.'s, New York, 
the girls earn from $5 to $7, and are paid by the piece. They 
sew in the establishment. Sewing the crowns in and wires on of 
plush hats is a distinct business from trimming, yet one in which 
they employ some women. It pays rather better than the other 
part of women's work, but requires great care and neatness. Sew- 
ing the leather linings in hats is the least profitable part. More 
women might find employment in hat work. A lady said to me 
she has an acquaintance that sometimes earns $2.50 a day at 
trimming hats. (?) L. employs some girls for trimming in the 
spring and fall. It is piecework, and some earn $9 a week. It 
is sometimes difficult to get very good hands. There are some 
factories in the West, but none in the South. Another hatter 
told me he pays 12J cents for trimming a hat. He has noticed 
that the swiftest are the best workers. A hatter told me a smart 
trimmer could earn from $8 to $10 a week, six months of the 



348 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

year ; but not more than $3 the other six months, because work 
is slack. A salesman in D.'s store told me a brisk hand can trim 
a dozen hats a day. The children's hats they have trimmed for 
the wholesale trade are not so neatly and carefully done as those 
for the retail trade. In selling a single hat, a purchaser examines 
closely, and if there is any defect, condemns it. The occupation 
is well filled in New York, and the work requires care, taste, and 
expedition. D. has constant employment for his hands; but for 
four months they have not as much as the hands wish, yet enough 
to yield most about $4. The women work above the store, because 
the blocks are there. They are allowed to take home and sew in 
the evening the linings of those hats that have the rims faced 
with leather. The plan is, generally, for a learner to spend six 
weeks' apprenticeship with an experienced hand, giving her work 
for instruction received. At Sing Sing prison, New York, of the 
one hundred and fifty female convicts, a majority are employed 
in binding hats, at 15 cents a dozen, made by the male convicts. 
The usual price in St. Louis is 14J cents a hat. At this rate, a 
lady can bind and line in a day a number amounting to from $1 
to $1.25. There are two hat factories in St. Louis, but they are 
not enough to supply the demand. A firm in Danbury write us, 
they " employ from seventy-five to one hundred women trimming 
hats. They pay by the piece, and their hands average $5 per 
week. Males average $9 a week. By the rules of trade, males 
spend four years learning ; females, five weeks. Women are not 
paid while learning. The prospect for a continuance of the busi- 
ness is good. The busy seasons are from July 1st to April 1st. 
Time of work does not exceed ten hours. The majority are 
Americans. There are advantages in being near the great centre 
of trade in this country, New York. Board, $2." A firm manu- 
facturing wool hats in the same place — Danbury — write they 
" employ ten Irish women in a card room, and sixty Yankee girls 
in trimming hats. The first receive $3 per week, the others 
$5.50. Women in the card room work ten hours. The American 
girls are intelligent and pretty." Another wool-hat manufacturer 
in Connecticut writes : u My women earn $1 each per day, on an 
average. It takes male operatives two years to learn. Work, 
on an average, ten months in the year. Board, $2." A firm in 
Milford, Conn., write : " Women earn from $3 to $7 per week. 
The reason why women are not better paid, is because the supply 
is greater than the demand. The employment will last as long 
as people wear hats. Fall and winter are the best seasons for 
work. The nearer you get to the market, the better the loca- 
tion." In reply to a letter, a firm employing from sixty to eighty 
women give the following intelligence : "The females employed 



HATS. 349 

by us are generally from fourteen to twenty-one years of age. 
They are paid by the piece, and earn from $4 to 89 per week. 
The labor of women is entirely distinct from that of men. It 
takes a good needlewoman about two months to become proficient. 
Women give the-r labor to the person who instructs them, from 
two to eight weeks. The business is good six or eight months. 
The rest of the year, they average about one half of what they 
can do. Busy times are from January 1st to May 1st, and from 
July 1st to November 1st. The demand is about equal to the 
supply, except in very busy times, when we could employ more ; 
but I think there are plenty, as an increased supply would tend 
to lower prices. Most of our women are foreigners. The prox- 
imity to large cities is advantageous to this business, as the goods 
are mostly*sold in New York, Philadelphia, Boston. &c. I should 
say there is little difference between the women employed in hat 
manufactories and others who have to earn a livelihood, such as 
dress makers, tailoresses, &c. Board, from $1.75 to $2. There 
is an objection amongst boarding-house keepers to females gen- 
erally, and strangers frequently have great difficulty in obtaining 
good board. This is certainly the fault of their own sex." A 
wool-hat firm in Yonkers, N. Y., write they pay by the piece, 
and workers earn from $5 to $7. Male and female labor do not 
compete. A gentleman and his son, in New York, who import 
and manufacture children's fancy hats, write me they pay from 
§5 to $12 a week, according to ability. Women are paid while 
learning, the time for which depends upon capacity and taste. 
There is regular employment with them in all months but June 
and December. Good operatives are always in demand. Large 
cities are the best localities. 

Hat Braiders, &c. Most hats called " palm leaf" are made 
of straw grown in the Northern States. P. & Co., of Boston, 
write me : " The occupation of braiding hats is one that employs 
the odd moments and hours of almost every Yankee farmer's sons 
and daughters, throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 
from one year's end to the other. We employ women, but not 
exclusively, and pay by the piece, from $1 to $1.50 per dozen. A 
wide-a-wake Yankee girl or boy, with nimble fingers, will learn 
in a few hours." A manufacturer in New Hampshire, employing 
" from 300 to 400, pays by the piece, and his workers earn from 
$6 to $8 per month. They learn generally when children, by see- 
ing others braid. The future prospect is not flattering, as the 
demand for palm-leaf hats is decreasing. The braiders work at 
home." $60,000 worth of palm-leaf hats were annually manu- 
factured at Nashua, N. H., a few years ago. C. told me they 
never employ women, except, in winter, to bind and put the oil- 



350 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

silk lining in gentlemen's straw hats, for the spring trade of the 
South. For the work they pay 12J cents a dozen. A woman 
can do from six to ten dozen a day. The best workers find em- 
ployment. The prospect of obtaining work to those who may 
learn is good. B. thinks but few American girls are employed 
in trimming straw hats. He pays by the piece, and some earn 
as much as $5 per week. They should spend about one month 
learning, and they do well to earn their board during that time. 

360. Oil Clothing. I was told at L. & Co.'s oil cloth- 
ing depot, that they have their sewing done by women at their 
homes. It is done by machines. They do not require any de- 
posit. Since the panic, a number of girls and women have come 
in and offered to do their work at under prices. The oiling is 
done after the goods are made up. The garments are laid on 
tables, and the oil applied with brushes. The clothes are then 
hung on frames to dry, and it requires six months. Oiling the 
goods is greasy, dirty work, but might be done by strong women. 
The work is not at all unhealthy. L. & Co. sell $150,000 suits 
a year. Their best sewers can make up six or eight dozen shirts 
a week, for some of which they are paid $1 a dozen, and for 
others, $1.25. The manufacture of oiled goods is confined to 
New York. 

361. Pantaloons. In making pantaloons, as in most 
other tailor's work, what is most neatly done commands the best 
prices. Custom work pays best. Making pantaloons is not quite 
so remunerative as making vests. The prices paid in cities by 
good-class tailors for making summer pantaloons, runs from 75 
cents to $1.25. For winter goods the prices are higher, ranging 
from $1 a pair to $1.50. Some tailors have their pantaloons 
made by men, and some even employ men to make their vests. 

362. Regalias. " Five American women are employed at 
Chicopee, Mass., in stitching military goods. They are paid by 
the piece. They never get their work perfect. Learners are 
paid something. Men are preferable, because it takes too much 
time to wait on women. There will be work as long as there are 
wars." A regalia maker, in New York, told me her girls earn 
from $3 to $5 a week. The sewing is done by hand. Those who 
embroider in silk receive about the same ; those with gold and 
silver thread, something more. 

363. Shirts. " Women who make shirts by hand, are paid 
for fine shirts from eighteen cents apiece to $1. Those who 
make at the lowest prices appear to have no other mission on 
earth but to sew up bleached muslin into shirts. The only 
time which they economize is their sleeping time ; and their food 
is economized for them by circumstances over which it would 



SHIRTS. 351 

appear they have but little control. In some instances we have 
been informed, that where there are two or three or more women 
or girls engaged in this enterprise of making shirts to enable 
gentlemen to appear respectable in society, they absolutely di- 
vide the night season into watches, so that the claims of sleep 
may not snatch from the grasp of the shirt manufacturers an iota 
of their rights. In this way, by working about twenty hours a 
day, the amazing sum of $2.50, and sometimes §3, is earned per 
week. Sewing machines have so reduced the amount of labor re- 
quired for shirts, as well as the price, that they can in some 
places only earn twenty-five cents by working twelve hours ; and 
they cannot get steady employment even at these prices." Be- 
tween 2,000 and 3,000 women are supposed to be engaged in 
shirt making in Philadelphia. Competition has depressed prices 
fearfully low. A shirt maker in that city told me he pays by the 
week. He gives the bodies out, and they are done by hand ; the 
collars and bosoms by machines. They are cut out by men with 
knives, and the cloth is from twenty-four to thirty-six thicknesses. 
They pay basters now mostly by the piece. B., of the same city, 
who carries on general shirt making, puts the plain parts out in 
the country to be done. It, of course, costs less than the finish; 
ing off. Good workers can earn from $3 to $1 a week for plain 
sewing — more for fine. At a shirt-bosom manufactory in Phila- 
delphia, P., the proprietor, told me he has the bosoms and collars 
made by machinery, employing seventeen girls all the year. 
Some establishments employ them only in the busy season, 
spring and fall. His women earn from $3 to $5 a week. To 
one machine are employed three girls : one to cut out, one to 
baste, and one to stitch. The fine plaits of bosoms are laid by 
machinery. Cutters and button-hole makers are better paid than 
basters and stitchers. A shirt maker told me in New York (De- 
cember, 1860), that the only houses there supplying the article 
were those that made up for the California market. Operators, 
good ones, he said, usually earn $1 a day, of nine hours in winter, 
and ten in summer. Those that work at home can earn more, 
because they do more. On Dey street, I was told by a gentle- 
man that he has shirts made in Connecticut, and he often finds it 
difficult to get good hands. He has shirts cut out with scissors. 
He used to employ a forewoman to cut and superintend. Most 
shirts sold in the South, West, and California, have been 
made at the North. New York, Troy, and New Haven are 
the principal places. Operators usually earn $1 a day, of 
eleven hours ; but as the work is generally paid for by the 
piece, they may earn only from fifty cents to $1. Making 
button holes is a distinct branch. He pays half a cent apiece 



352 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

for those of ordinary size, and one cent for the larger ones 
of the wrists. In good times he employs girls all the year. The 
spring sale commences in January, the fall sale in July. S., 
another manufacturer, has common drawers and shirts made by 
machine. A brisk hand can make two dozen pair of drawers a 
day, and are paid fifty cents a dozen (?) He keeps workers in 
prosperous times all the year. A lady who makes shirts by hand 
told me she could barely make a living, though her work is done 
for customers. She does most in spring and summer. The 
trimmings she makes by machine. Madame P. pays eighty cents 
for making a shirt, except the bosom, which is imported. She 
does her own cutting by hand. A shirt maker says girls that 
can finish a shirt neatly get $3 a week of ten or eleven hours 
a day. Work of that kind is not confined to seasons. J. has 
most work to do in summer. The girls are paid by the piece, and 
can earn from $3 to $4. His are made by machine, but finished 
off by hand. He has girls of all kinds ; idle and industrious, 
easy of temper and obstinate ; in short, the variety always to be 
met with in help. A lady told me she cuts shirts by measure, 
and has a variety of styles. She pays an old lady fifty cents a 
day for basting, and from $5 to $6 a week to an operator. The 
neatness of machine sewing depends much on the way in which 
the basting is done. W. told me his basters earn from $3 to $4 ; 
operators from $5 to $6 ; button-hole makers from $4 to $6. He 
gives employment all the year. No demand, except in busy sea- 
sons for good operators, and they can be obtained by advertising. 
The owner of a shirt-collar manufactory and laundry said his 
collars were stitched by machines, and the operators earn from 
$3 to $9 per week. It is piece work. The washers are paid by 
the hundred dozen. Six weeks, I believe, is the time usually 
given by one that can sew neatly, to learn the trade. At L. & 
G-.'s, I was told the best seasons in the wholesale trade are spring 
and fall ; but in the retail trade there is little difference. Men 
and boys cut out with a knife, and are able to cut through seven- 
ty-two thicknesses of cloth. Women have not the strength to cut 
such quantities. The prospect is fair for good hands. There is 
a superabundance of indifferent hands. Their best sewers are 
English. Many of them are married women. They used to em- 
ploy young girls, but they wasted material and were not steady 
at work. They have lost much by women that would come and 
take out a dozen shirts to make, and never return them. On in- 
quiring at the place where the women said they lived, they would 
find they had never been there. Few, except the Jews, require a 
deposit. It is difficult to obtain one from sewers of the value of 
the material taken out. They could obtain one hundred and 



SHIRTS. 353 

fifty hands any day by advertising. Button-hole makers earn $5 
a week ; some operators, $9. A factory in New Haven employs 
eight hundred women ; two hundred work in the establishment, 
the others work out. The indoor work is done by machines. 
The other is finishing off, and is sent through the country. It 
consists in gathering and sewing in the sleeves, felling down the 
facing around them, stitching on wristbands, sewing in the bo- 
soms, putting on the collar, and working the button-holes, for 
which they receive ten cents a shirt. A firm of shirt manufac- 
turers in Troy, N. Y., write : " We employ from three hun- 
dred to four hundred women ; some with sewing machines, some 
with needles, and others in various kinds of labor connected with 
our manufacturing. They are paid by the piece, and earn from 
$3 to $10 a week. While learning they are paid according to 
what they do. Spring and fail are the best seasons, but they 
have some employment all the year. The supply is fully equal 
to the demand in this locality. About half are Americans; 
board, $2 to $2.50." Another firm in the same place writes : 
u We employ four hundred, and pay from $5 to $10 per week to 
about one hundred hands, and from $3 to $7 to those who do not 
depend upon it for a livelihood. Women spend a few months learn- 
ing ; men, years. Midwinter and summer are the best seasons for 
work." A shirt- collar firm in Troy write : u In reply to yours 
we would state, we are employing in and outside of our manufac- 
tory, from six to eight hundred women, in running, turning, 
stitching, banding, marking, and boxing gentlemen's collars. 
Most of our workwomen are Americans, and live with parents or 
relatives. Those boarding pay from $1.75 to $3 per week. 
Many of our workwomen are very intelligent. All are required 
to be steady and industrious. Some parts of our business can 
be learned in two or three weeks, while other parts will take as 
many months ; but each one is paid while learning. Out work 
is all done by the piece, and women earn from $5 to $8 per week 
during business seasons, which are summer and winter. They 
are usually thrown out of employment one month during the fall, 
and one in spring. The employment requires from eight to nine 
hours per day, in our manufactory. The making of gentlemen's 
collars must increase in proportion to the increase of the male 
♦population of our country ; and, as styles are becoming more and 
more varied, this also must tend to increase the manufacture. 
There is, however, no demand for help in any department of the 
business, yet. We have but five or six women in all our estab- 
lishment who are required to stand upon their feet while at 
work. All others can make their positions quite comfortable. 
We employ but few men (from five to eight), and they are in de- 



854 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



partments which women could not fill ; nor could men well fill 
the women's department." Manufacturers in Boston write : 
" The prospect of future employment is good. Our women (fifty 
in number) are nearly all Americans. There is no competition 
between male and female labor in this branch, which, probably, 
is the cause of women receiving less wages. The work is healthy, 
only as it involves want of fresh air and exercise. Girls in the 
shop are paid from $4 to $7 per week, and work from nine to ten 
hours. Good sewers are getting scarcer every year. We are al- 
ways ready to employ a really good hand — one who can do nice 
work. There is a growing demand for articles of all kinds. 
There are a great many women unable to sew well, who compete 
with each other for the work given out by the slop shops." 
Shirt makers in Ithaca, New York, write : " The work is very 
healthy in well ventilated establishments. What we employ men 
for, women cannot do as well. There is a demand for collar fin- 
ishers, a surplus of machine operatives." Shirt manufacturers 
in Watertown, Conn., write : " We employ in our establish- 
ment from twelve to twenty girls and women, all Americans. 
They work in winter about nine hours ; in summer, ten. Most 
of them work on sewing machines, and can earn from $4 to 85 
per week. For board they pay $2 per week. There is no season 
of the year when our work is entirely stopped." L., in Lynn, 
Mass., engaged in custom-shirt manufacturing, writes : u I 
pay fifty cents apiece for making shirts, and $4.50 per week 
for a machine girl. My workwomen are widows and married 
women, and they average five shirts or $2.50 per week, besides 
their house work. But a woman that makes five shirts a week 
cannot have much spare time." A lady in Massachusetts, who 
has shirts made to order, informs me she pays by the piece, and 
her girls earn from fifty to seventy-five cents a day. She em- 
ploys the most skilful. She says the nature of the employment 
is such that no woman could enjoy health long, who did nothing 
else, and the wages are so small that anyone must work all the 
time to make a living ; hence the work does not suit any, except 
those who have homes and have recourse to this as a secondary 
employment. The demand for the articles in the market is lim- 
ited, and she has never been able to carry it on in a wholesale 
manner except by the aid of friends whose sympathy has created 
a demand for the work. 

364. Suspenders. J., New York, says his girls can earn 
from $4 to $5, and are paid by the piece. There are but four 
suspender factories in the United States, of any size. The factories 
at the east are mostly supplied by the daughters of farmers from 
the vicinity. The one in Easthampton is of the best standing. 



TAILOEESSES. 355 

The girls are intelligent and well behaved. Board too is lower. 
They like to employ families, father, mother, sons, and daughters. 
A suspender maker, in ISTew York, told me he buys the woven 
goods, then cuts it the right length, and shapes the leather for the 
ends, which his wife sews on. I expect, from the appearance of 
their room, they earn but a meagre subsistence. The agent of 
the American Suspender Co., at Waterbury, told me " they employ 
a large number of girls to spool, weave, and pack. The straps 
are sewed on by farmers' daughters, who take them home. They 
are paid for by the gross. They earn less than weavers, who can 
make from $4 to $6 a week. They have had constant work until 
this fall (1880). The bindings are sewed on by hand. It re- 
quires some time to become a good weaver. A man serves a reg- 
ular apprenticeship- — women will learn for ten years, if they con- 
tinue. Ingenuity and mechanical talent are desirable. A learner 
is not paid while in with another weaver. The amount of em- 
ployment in future depends on European competition. The hands 
work ten hours a day, and they employ about fifty women, one 
fourth of whom are American. Women are superior to men in 
activity, and will handle thread much better than men. Board, 
$1.75." 

365. Tailoresses. The tailors of London have a pension 
society. All the tailors 5 work of this country might be performed 
by women. It is most suitable for them. Some say women can- 
not do the nice sewing of a coat. Give them the same training, 
and pay them the same wages as men, and we are confident they 
can. All of the clothes sold in the slop shops of cities are made 
by women. Many can sew beautifully, but have not learned the 
art of cutting out. This they will find an important part of their 
trade. It will greatly assist those who make boys' clothes. It is 
ascertained that at least 4,800 females are supplied with work by 
the ready-made clothing establishments of Philadelphia, which 
enables each industrious sewer to earn from $1.25 to $5 per week. 
A large number of women are now engaged in making clothes for 
the soldiers. At most large clothing establishments, work is done 
both by hand and machine. Some is done in the house, but most 
is given out. At O.'s, New York, they employ a large number. 
The majority are Americans, but some are Germans, and a few 
Irish. The foreman finds those that are dependent on their work 
for a living, do their work better than those that merely do it for 
pocket money. The best work is always best paid. A good 
hand can earn $3 per week. They work by the piece. Some 
women hire a room and employ girls to work for them. S. says 
the principal reason that women do not get as good prices as men, 
is that they do not learn to do their work so well. He spent five 



356 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

years learning, bur a girl expects to learn it in so many weeks, 
or months, at most ; but many women that sew for a support are 
very poor, and cannot afford to spend much time learning. T. 
pays his women from $5 to $10 a week, according to the work 
they do. K. says girls do not feel the interest in their work they 
should. They forget that three minutes lost by twenty girls 
amounts to an hour. If a procession is passing, they think it very 
hard if they cannot have ten or fifteen minutes to look out of the 
windows. The girls that sew earn from $3 to $4.50, except those 
who fasten the ends of threads and take out basting threads, who 
receive $2,50. They all work ten hours. They have some who 
take their work home, and are paid by the piece. Those that do 
their work best have the highest prices, and are most sure of hav- 
ing constant employment. Some of their women become mere 
machines, and that in his opinion was a recommendation. They 
have no life or spirit, but plod on day after day in the same way. 
Such, when they do their work neatly and thoroughly, he thinks 
most reliable. They find it difficult to get their work well done. 
It is computed by Dr. L. that one thousand needlewomen fall 
victims annually to overwork at the needle. A city missionary 
told me that he knew of many sempstresses that spent sixteen 
hours out of the twenty-four, stitching. I was told in D. & B.'s 
clothing store, that the women who sew by hand, earn from $3 
to $4 per week. P. measures and cuts, and he employs women 
to operate on machines, paying from $3 to $4 per week, working . 
from 8 to 7 o'clock. It is done under Mrs. P.'s supervision. 
The work is mostly for boys. They give work out, and of course 
pay by the piece. Their most busy times are from October to 
March, and from April to September. They do Southern work. 
L. & Co. make boys' clothing, and pay by the piece. They re- 
quire a deposit from those that are doubtful. If business is good, 
they give work all the year. He thinks there is enough of work, 
in busy times, for all the tailoresses in the city. The best way 
to learn is to receive instruction from journeymen who employ 
hands and take learners. Some require an apprenticeship of 
three months, and some of six months, in children's clothing. 
The busy season commences November 1st and runs to March 
1st, and from March to September 1st. 

366. Vests. First class vest makers receive better prices 
than women in the other departments of tailoring, and are more 
sure of work. Superior hands can earn from $4 to $5 a week. 
Clothing, cap makers and shoe binders are often crowded together 
from forty to fifty in a room, where it is stitch, stitch, stitch from 
daylight to sundown. Some slop shops in New York pay only 
fifteen cents for making a vest, and only ten cents for pantaloons ! ! ! 



UPHOLSTEEEES. 357 

There are over nine thousand tailoresses doing custom work in 
New York, and of these 7,400 are vestmakers. 



UPHOLSTEKEKS. 

367. Upholsterers. Some branches of upholstery are 
hard work in consequence of the heaviness of the materials. At 
some upholsterers in Philadelphia, when a girl applies for work, 
she is taught during a fortnight, and receives enough to pay her 
board — usually $1.50 per week. At the end of this time, if found 
faithful and diligent, she is^put upon full wages, $3.50 a week. 
In this trade there is the serious drawback of remaining a great 
part of the year unemployed, as it is only in the spring and fall 
that the business is brisk. Men usually put up tapestry, and lay 
down heavy carpets. The price to girls by upholsterers is about 
on a par with other work done by females. H., Philadelphia, 
employs .several women. The forewoman receives $5.50 per 
week ; .the next best hand, $5 ; the less proficient, from $2 to $5. 
The business requires a good amount of intelligence, and about a 
year's application to acquire it. H. is not exacting as to the 
number of hours his operatives work. When business is slack 
they have easy times. He employs his good hands all the year. 
In one of the principal importing and manufacturing upholsteries 
and carpet establishments in New York about seventy females 
are employed. They make up a great many lace and damask 
curtains, and are under the supervision of a forewoman. Seven- 
teen sewing machines are kept, though most of the sewing 
is done by hand. Any person that can sew well can do all the 
work, as it is cut out and prepared. With a very few excep- 
tions all are paid by the week, receiving from $3 to $4, working 
ten hours a day. The piece workers can sometimes earn $5. 
They are employed the whole year. An upholsterer told me 
that his work is done to order, and consequently the measure for 
beds, mattresses, curtains, &c, is always taken. There are many 
women in Boston, I have been informed, working in sofa, chair, 
and lounge manufactories that earn from $1 to $1.50 a day. A 
firm in Boston writes: "I employ women to sew and attend 
sales, and pay from $3 to $4 a week. Men are paid two thirds 
more than women, because it is the fashion. It requires three 
months to learn. A knowledge of the needle and figures is 
desirable. Learners are paid. Females work nine hours and a 



358 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

half. Some parts of our work are in wood, and too heavy for 
women; the rest they can do better than men. Board, $2 to 
$4. A firm in Boston, " employing two women to make sofa 
cushions, pay them $4 each per week, working from eight to ten 
hours a day. They pay women less than men, because female 
help is generally cheaper. Men spend three years learning ; 
women, one month. Learners have their board paid. The prospect 
for work is good. Spring and autumn are the most busy seasons, 
but they have work all the year." Another firm in the same 
place write they " employ fifteen women, pay by the piece, and 
their hands earn $5 per week. The prospect for work is good, 
but there are plenty of hands there." 

368. Beds. At a feather store I was told feathers for 
stuffing beds are bought from merchants, who employ agents to 
travel through the country, and buy them up. They get their 
feathers from the West. Live geese feathers are the best. All 
imported are from Russia, It requires great experience to buy 
feathers. At another store I was told feathers must be baked to 
render them light — otherwise they are flat and heavy. The 
salesman never knew of a woman being employed in baking — 
thinks it not suitable, for the down gets in the mouth and 
nostrils, as the feathers must be constantly stirred. In the 
spring and fall, when most people go to housekeeping, most beds 
are sold. 

369. Carpets. Two thirds of the inhabitants of Saxony 
are employed in weaving, It requires from two to three years 
to become a good carpet weaver. To prepare warp and rags for 
rag carpets is very suitable, but the weaving is rather hard for 
women. Mrs. W. says it does not require a great deal of strength 
to weave rag carpets, when the loom is a good one and in proper 
order. Inweaving, both the arms and lower limbs are exercised, 
particularly the latter. She wove when she was only thirteen 
years old. The exercise tends to develop the chest. The price 
for weaving in small places is from 12i to 18 cents a yard. 
She knew one lady that often wove fourteen yards a day, amount- 
ing to $1.75 ; but her health failed, and she changed her occupa- 
tion. I called in a weaver's, in Brooklyn. He charges 18f 
cents per yard for weaving, and can weave from eighteen to 
twenty yards a day. Some rags are much more difficult to man- 
age than others. The dust from the rags in spooling and weav- 
ing must be disagreeable. When not working for customers he 
makes carpets to keep on hand for sale. He buys the rags of old 
women, who get the scraps at tailors' shops every Monday morn- 
ing, and cut them into strips, then wind and sell them at $7.50 
a hundred pounds. The women are mostly Germans, and make 



CUELED HAIR PULLERS. 359 

a scanty living at it. In the Old Ladies' Home, Brooklyn, some of 
the inmates pass part of their time in preparing rags for weaving. 
Some old women buy of junk dealers the rags they sell to weavers. 
A woman whose husband was a carpet weaver in New York, con- 
tinues the business since his death, employing two old men to 
weave. She charges eighteen cents a yard for weaving. She 
says that kind of weaving could never be done by machinery, 
as it would pull the rags all to pieces. She buys listing and 
cloth of old women who get it from the tailors and bring it around 
to sell. She pays twelve cents a pound for listing, six for cloth. 
She cuts them herself. A weaver told me he charges eighteen 
cents a yard. He buys pieces of cloth from the tailors for mak- 
ing up a stock to keep on hand. A pile of listing lay on the 
floor, for which he had paid nine cents a pound. He can weave 
from eight to sixteen yards a day. I have seen the average price 
of weaving carpets stated at nine cents a yard. The dust that 
flies in preparing carpet rags is disagreeable, and injurious to the 
eyes and lungs. 

370. Curled Hair Pullers. Hair pullers are mostly 
Irish women, the wives of foreigners and laboring men. A few 
are women of a better class reduced in circumstances. In Phila- 
delphia, at the shop of a kind old man, I saw women picking hair 
for mattresses. He pays two cents a pound for picking. The 
women earn from forty to sixty cents a day. The dust that flies 
from the hair is injurious to the lungs, and the constant watching 
is trying to the eyes. At one curled hair factory in New York 
I saw women employed at one cent a pound, at another two cents. 
A smart woman can pick twenty-five or thirty a day. An up- 
holsterer in Boston writes : " We have women to sew, pick hair, 
&c. We pay by the piece. Men receive one third better pay 
than women. Women receive less, because they have not brass 
enough to ask more. Any woman can do our work. The pros- 
pect of work in our line is very fair. We have twenty women 
who work all the time. The demand for hands is small, surplus 
large. Large cities are best for our trade. Board, 82.50." 

371. Curtain Trimmings. I saw two girls, in New 
York, who work at the trade. Their employer does not pay 
learners for two weeks, then according to what they do. Some 
are paid by the week, and some by the piece. The last plan pays 
best. The girls earn from $3 to $5 per week, some even as much 
as $7. Plenty of hands can always be had. They have most 
work in summer. At another place I was told it takes three or 
four months to learn. Good hands can earn then from $4 to $5. 
Mrs. B., in New York, told me her girls work by the piece, 
making curtain trimmings, and earn from $5 to $6 a week. They 



360 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

work from 6 a. m. until 7 p. m. They can learn it in a few weeks. 
At Y.'s, in New York, I saw a plain, genteel-looking woman en- 
gaged in making tassels. She pays $2 a week for board — wash- 
ing extra. She spoke very well of her employer, for whom she 
had worked twelve years. She mentioned an old lady upstairs 
who had been in his employ twenty years. He has fifteen women 
in the tassel department, and fifteen making gimps and friDges. 
Some of the hands are paid by the piece, and some by the week — 
ten hours a day. They are paid every two weeks on Saturday 
afternoon. In the old country women make twisted cord, but 
not in this. Cordmakers are on their feet all the time. Y.'s 
women get from $2 to $5 per week, ten hours a day. Men get 
from $6 to $9. It requires six months to learn, and learners re- 
ceive $1.50 per week. In winter, just before the holidays, is the 
best time for work; but Y.'s hands have employment all the 
time. When not filling orders, they make stock work. They have 
a great many applications for work. 

372. Furniture Goods. "At Seymour, Conn., are 
manufactured brocatelles and cotalines, a fabric composed of 
silk and linen, or cotton, and used for furniture draperies and 
carriage linings. Each loom is worked by a girl, who requires 
very little previous experience to manage it perfectly. There 
are about 60 persons employed at present in the work, two thirds 
of whom are females from the age of fourteen upward. The 
rate of wages paid by the company is higher than that given by 
the neighboring factories, the nature of the work requiring a 
superior degree of skill and intelligence." 

373. Mattresses. A girl engaged in making mattresses 
told us they are mostly sewed up by machines, and operators 
earn from $3 to $6, working ten hours a day. In some factories 
women sew the mattresses, and boys and men prepare the hair 
and fill them. A mattress seller told me he employs girls to 
make mattresses in the spring and fall, paying $3 a week, of ten 
hours a day. One bed furnisher told me her work is mostly done 
by old ladies. She says some girls down street earn $6 a week, 
making mattresses. One large manufacturer told me that his 
is piecework, and some of his girls earn from $8 to $12 a week. 
He furnishes the sewing machines. In April and May, he finds 
it difficult to get enough of hands. At another large store, I 
was told they pay from $6 to $7 a week to good operators, and 
have their work done in the building. At another large bed and 
mattress store, I was told they pay women for making ticks with 
machines from $4 to $5 a week. It is not very steady work. 
At another place they occupied a room back of the store, and 
earned from $4 to $6 a week. A firm in Nashua, N. H,, 



VENETIAN BLINDS — WINDOW SHADES. 361 

write me " they employ fourteen American women in making 
mattresses, cushions, &c, and pay from $3 to $3.50 a week, 
including board, and work ten hours a day. Men are paid 
about 85 a week, and do different work from the women. Some 
of the hands are emploj^ed all the year. There is no great 
demand for mattress makers at present anywhere. Board, $2." 

374. Venetian Blinds. At W.'s Venetian blind manu- 
factory, in Philadelphia, I was told they generally employ several 
women. They earn about $3 a week, and take their sewing home. 
The work is sewing tapes on the main pieces to support the slats. 
The business is best in the spring, from January to May, and is 
good in the fall, but they endeavor to furnish some employment 
all the year to their girls, who are American. A manufacturer 
of Venetian blinds in Boston employs some women in writing, 
sewing, laying out work, &c. They are mostly paid by the piece, 
and earn from $3 to $6 per week. Male and female labor is not 
of the same kind in his establishment, Men spend two years 
learning ; women, one month. The last part of spring and the 
first part of summer are best for work. He could easily find 
more sewers, if he had employment for them. He finds them 
cheaper and more suitable for the work than men. The means 
of mental and moral culture are those common to the residents 
of Boston. 

375. Window Shades. At an establishment in Phila- 
delphia, a few women are employed in the busy seasons, spring 
and fall, in laying the gilding on the borders of linen shades. 
They earn from $1.50 to $3.00 per week. The painted linen 
window shades (landscapes, buildings, &c.) are executed entirely 
by men, who receive $12 a week wages. Our informant said 
these men could paint (I think ) 6 pair a day. I am sure there 
is no reason why a lady could not paint landscapes and other 
ornamental work on shades, if they would only qualify themselves. 
It would probably require two or three years 5 practice to acquire 
proficienc3 T , for a person unaccustomed to painting of any kind. 
The design of common ones is invented as the painter proceeds, 
as he has no pattern to work from. It requires a knowledge of 
colors, and some taste and ingenuity. A man is paid from $1.50 
to $2 a day. K., New York, has a number of women stencil- 
ling shades. The women earn about $4 a week. B., New York, 
usually employs two girls in putting elastic over the bands of 
pulleys and- tying them up, for which they each receive $4 a 
week. I saw a girl in New York, engaged in stencilling. She is 
paid by the piece, and can earn $6 or $7 a week, when she has 
constant employment. It does not take long to learn. I called 
at a factory where they pay three cents a piece for painting the 

16 



362 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

centres of common shades. It is done with cloths. They pay 
$2 a piece for fine ones. The fine ones have the principal parts 
drawn before being painted. A smart man can earn $20 a week 
at that work, but shades are not much used now. At a store on 
Broadway, they used to employ girls for painting shades and 
putting on the gilding. They had American girls mostly. Ger- 
man men are mostly employed at that work. If American men 
learn this business, they have so much energy and ambition they 
are soon able to get an establishment of their own, and then em- 
ploy foreigners, many of whom work for less, to obtain employ- 
ment, and then cannot raise their prices, and so are apt ever to 
retain a subordinate position. Their girls worked in the room 
with the men, but it was a large room, and they worked at the far 
end. Part of the work ought to be done by men. They had one 
woman that put on the flowing colors and earned $9 a week. 
But they found it necessary to have the girls wear Bloomer 
costume, to prevent their dresses touching the shade while paint- 
ing; but they would not even then consent to lay down their 
hoops, and as their skirts w^ould touch the painting and injure 
it, they altogether abandoned the employment of females. L., 
New York, told me he met with great opposition when he first 
employed women to gild window curtains, and he could not have 
held out if his house had not been established and he very firm. 
He lost one or more of his customers by doing so. The work is. 
very suitable for women. L.'s men and women work in the same 
apartment, but the men are required to be very respectful. The 
women have a dressing room attached to their workroom. They 
move about on their feet all the time, while at work. Men put 
size on, but women could do it. The women receive $5 a week, 
and never work over ten hours. The work can be learned in a day. 
The Southerners are doing without fancy goods now, so the trade 
is very poor. L. has saved about $1,000 the past year by em- 
ploying women. Men are in such haste to get through their 
work, that they are careless and waste the gold leaf. A window- 
shade manufacturer in Boston, who employs some girls in stencil^ 
ling, informs me by letter that " he pays by the piece from $3 to 
$6 per week. A smart, active girl can earn more than a man of 
medium abilities. Cleanliness and endurance are the most 
essential qualifications. The prospect for continuance is as good 
as that of any other fancy business. Best seasons for work aie 
from March to July, and October to January, but at other times 
hands can make enough to pay their board. They work from 
seven to twelve hours ; for over hours, are paid extra. Board, 
$2,50; (washing extra) but they have not a room alone." One 
shade manufacturer writes : " There are parts of my work that 



BOOKFOLDERS. 363 

could be done by girls as well as men, but their style of dress is 
not adapted to it." Another in Boston writes : " I would employ 
women, if. my shop was convenient, as I could get them for less 
price than men. Men are paid thirty-three per cent, more than 
women : one reason is they are capable of more endurance. We 
work ten hours in summer, eight in winter." Another firm in 
the same city employs from four to eight women, paying from $3 to 
$6 per week, working from nine to ten hours a day. Six months is, 
the average time given by a learner. Spring and fall are the 
most busy seasons." 

Wire Window Shades. Mrs. C. said a lady used to paint 
wire shades for her husband. He also employed men. He has 
most work done in summer. It requires care to keep from filling 

the niches with paint. Miss acquired boldness and freedom 

of execution in oil painting by the practice. Rapidity and light- 
ness of touch were also acquired. Her hand had got a stiff, 
cramped feeling, from painting on canvas constantly. The price 
paid for shades depends on the fineness of the cloth, the size, and 
design. Miss S. says her father has the landscape painting done 
by Germans, and pays good prices. It is paid for by the square 
foot. He charges $2 a square foot, for a shade in the frame, 
ready to put in the window. The artists take them to their 
studios. Germans are preferred because they work most rapidly. 
One makes a great deal of money, but he works late at night and 
on Sundays. Several coats of paint are put on before the land- 
scape is painted. Some copy engravings, but enlarge the scale. 
They make to order. The business is increasing. He sends a 
great many to the South, particularly Havana and Baltimore. 



MANUFACTUEEES OF BOOKS, DTK, PAPEE, 
AND PENCILS. 

376, Bookfolders. I know of no work in a bookbind- 
ery that could not be performed by intelligent women that were 
properly instructed. Forwarding, marbling, gilding, stamping, 
and finishing could be done by them, in addition to presswork, 
folding, gathering, and sewing. The female bookfolders of New 
York number several thousand. The women in Philadelphia 
binderies are between 1,000 and 2,000. The most bookfolding 
and sewing, out of New York, are done in Washington and Phil- 
adelphia, and some in Cincinnati. The busy seasons for book 



36-i THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

makers are from September to January, and from March to July. 
In this business there is a union among the men regulating prices, 
hours, &c. There is a great difference in the character of the 
binderies in New York — every shade and grade is to be found. 
In seeing the size and comfort of the workrooms, and the man- 
ners and conversation of the employer, it would not be very dif- 
ficult to judge of the pay and condition of the workgirls. The 
trade is well filled, and, no doubt, with quite as many women of 
worth, self-respect, and education, as any other. At the Bible 
House, Tract House, Methodist Book Concern, and Harper's, 
New York, the faces of the workers are bright and cheerful. 
Every precaution is taken to secure only those who are respect- 
able, and the associations surrounding them are calculated to 
elevate, rather than degrade. Most of them are able to pay 
enough for their board to secure the right kind of home associa- 
tions. These establishments, except in emergencies like the pres- 
ent, retain their hands all the year ; while those in a majority 
of other houses fluctuate with their business and are unoccupied 
three or four months in the year. Bookfolding is paid for by the 
1,000 sheets, depending on the size of the sheet and the number 
of times it is folded. A good, fast folder can earn from 50 cents 
to 65 cents a day, whether folding with a machine or by hand. 
A few can earn as much as $6 per week. Folding and collating 
pay the best of woman's work. Collating is usually paid for at 
20 cents an hour. Men in bookbinderies get from $8 to $20 per 
week. Some employers are much more kind and intelligent than 
others. Some bookbinders in New York impose on girls by 
taking them to learn the business, requiring that they stay from 
six weeks to six months to do so, and paying nothing during that 
time. During the most of the time their work is efficient, and 
they earn money for their employers. When the time has ex- 
pired they are turned off, and others taken on. Some bookbind- 
ers employ those who will do their work at a very cheap rate, 
often thus exposing them to influences that are pernicious. 
Favoritism is often shown by employers and foremen. At H.'s, 
200 women and girls are employed in folding, sewing, and gild- 
ing. Either of the branches is light and pleasant, and soon 
learned, after which the remuneration depends upon the abilities 
of the learner. Their hours are from 7i to 6, but it is piece 
work. All of his workpeople are temperance people. The work 
of bookbinders is not more unhealthy than any other indoor 
work. At the Tract House they take a few girls to learn to fold, 
and have them work until they earn $6 before they pay anything. 
An English woman told me that she used to earn $7 a week, as 
forewoman, but they never allowed her to be absent a day. A 



BOOK SEWERS. ; 365 

publisher in Philadelphia employs about fifty girls in his bindery, 
but complains that as soon as they make a few dollars they will 
take a holiday to spend it. He says the better he pays the girls 
in his bindery, the more they are absent from their work and the 
more difficult are they to manage. That, I think, arises from de- 
fective moral training. We know that people of right principle 
(both men and women), whose wages enable them to dress com- 
fortably, and provide wholesome food and well ventilated, healthy 
apartments, are not only better able to work well and constantly, 
but do so. It stands to reason they should. If the poor cannot 
make a proper use of their scanty compensation, they are more 
to be pitied than blamed, for we know well they have nothing to 
spare. The manufacture of blank-books is an important branch 
of business. A blank-book manufacturer in Troy writes : " I 
pay both ways, and the wages are from $3 to $4.50 per week. 
Men's wages are from $6 to -$12, but their work is different and 
heavier. Women's part of the work is learned in from six weeks 
to one year. A ready hand and quick' eye are wanted by a 
learner. Busiest time from December to July. There is a sur- 
plus of hands, so far as I know. When men work at the wom- 
en's branches (which is very seldom), they do it more substan- 
tially." In France women do much of the work in blank-book 
binderies. In M. Maitre's book bindery, Dijon, France, " No 
apprentice, boy or girl, is received until after they have made 
their premier communion, and received a certificate that they can 
both read and write, and also a medical certificate of vaccination. 
The workpeople are thus of a respectable class. The young 
children, of most of the married women are either sent out to 
nurse in the country, according to the very common custom of 
France, or else the married pair form one household with the 
grand parents." 

377. Book Sewers. " Trades in general require a large 
share of mechanical ingenuity, in combination with strength, 
mathematical skill, and other qualifications. Strength is requis- 
ite to the success of a bookbinder." Women employed in sewing 
are paid by the piece, and as soon as they are competent, which 
requires but a few days, are paid according to their application 
from $3.50 to $1 per week. The work of women in binderies is 
clean, and about as comfortable and remunerative as any other 
of a mechanical nature. At the Methodist Book Concern we saw 
girls folding, gathering, sewing, putting plates in books, gilding 
the covers, and feeding the presses. They were well dressed and 
intelligent looking, and evidently felt an interest in the welfare 
of the establishment. The majority were Americans. The su- 
perintendent told us, " girls earn, in the sewing department, from 



36G THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

$3 to $9 per week. A good sewer can earn, without difficulty, 
from $5 to $5.50 per week. Tbey have about thirty, most of 
whom work by the piece. Tbey have one strong woman who 
sometimes earns $10 a week. Tbey never work over ten hours, 
as the bouse is only open for work that long. The folding and 
enveloping of tracts and papers admit of a change of posture. 
There is no similarity in the male and female labor. The com- 
parison in prices is about one-half to one- third. It requires a life- 
time to learn a man's branch ; an intelligent woman can learn hers 
in a week. The result of a bookbinder's work is not for a day, 
but for all time. Bookbinders have more constant employment 
than those in most other trades. The work is most dull in summer. 
There is constant employment in New York for first-class hands, 
and always a surplus of second-class. Large cities oiferthe best 
localities — those in the South and West will probably furnish 
many openings to publishers." A. & S. employ girls to fold, 
stitch, and sew. They are paid by the piece (customary), and 
earn from $3 to $5 per week. Sewers can earn more than folders 
and stitchers — say from $5 to $7. They work until six o'clock 
and commence when they please, as they are paid by the quantity. 
A bookbinder told me his girls work from seven to six o'clock, 
He gives work all the year. They are paid by the piece, and can 
earn from $5 to $6 a week. I have been told folders and sewers 
are taken as learners only where the cheapest work is done. At 
some binderies three cents 100 is paid for folding, three cents for 
sewing, and six cents for stitching. At some places five cents 100 
is paid for folding 12mo. sheets. The proportion of hands em- 
ployed in the different branches of bookbinding is somewhat as 
follows: About- two thirds are folders, one sixth gatherers, and 
one sixth sewers. A process has been invented by which books 
can be strongly bound without sewing. I fear it may be the 
means of throwing many sewers out of employment. At W.'s 
bookbindery I was told they sometimes take learners. They ex- 
pect them to stay six months, and pay them half that they can 
earn during that time. They pay workers by the piece, and they 
can earn from $-i to |6 a week. Some of the girls are employed 
to remove the covers from old books and magazines that are to 
be rebound. M., who does the printing of the A.'s, informs me 
that his girls work by the piece, and average over $4 per week. 
His learners receive one half their earnings — the teacher the 
other half. Spring and fail are the most busy seasons, but the 
women are never entirely out of employment. There is no sur- 
plus of good hands, but many imperfect ones. He employs from 
125 to 150. The superintendent at H.'s told me that the girls 
in the sewing-room earn from $3.50 to $8. He says their women 



CARD MAKERS. 36 7 

are intelligent and ladylike, and would adorn the best society. 
They change their dresses when they come to work, and then he- 
fore leaving. If they are at all hurried in their work, their 
hands, both men and women, come early and stay late of their 
own free will. Males average $10, females over $4. The reason 
of the difference is, that men serve an apprenticeship of five or 
seven years — women five or seven weeks. The former are the 
mechanics ; the latter merely assistants. The latter cheapen the 
labor of the former, without having the strength or physical 
ability to perform their work. (I cannot see how it should be so 
when the branches performed are entirely distinct.) The fore- 
man at B.'s told me a very brisk worker can earn $6 a week, but 
few do. They do not average over eight hours a day. They 
never light their building. S. 7 s girls, in good times, are employed 
all the year. He pays by the piece, and his girls earn from $3 
to $5. In most small book binderies in New York men and girls 
work in the same room. A girl at the Tract House told me they 
pay better for sewing there than in most other places, and have 
wort all the year, in ordinary times. A printer boy told me his 
sister earns, in a bindery, from $8 to $10 a w r eek. D. has news- 
papers printed and folded, and pays his women for folding from 
$4 to $5 a week. A manufacturer in New York, having a bind- 
ery in New Jersey, pays his girls mostly $8.50 a week, besides 
their board and washing. He boards them, and he is very par- 
ticular in having them attend church on the Sabbath, and keep- 
ing an oversight of their morals and habits. Most of the binding 
done South and West is that of blank books. There is not so 
much machinery at the South and West as at the North. F. says 
the binding of blank books pays best, A good folder may earn 
$6 a week, but a sewer not so much. The majority of both do 
not earn more than $4. They pay from the first. One woman 
can stitch enough to keep three men employed. So there are not 
as many women employed in factories where blank books are 
made, as where printed books are. I was told on Fulton street, 
at a blank-book manufactory, that their girls earn from $5 to $7. 
They give steady work all the year. The binding of blank books 
pays best. They have one girl that sometimes earns $9 a week. 
At jobbing houses girls generally earn $6 a week, when paid by 
the week for binding. 

378. Card Makers. For about eleven hundred years 
women have been more or less employed in the manufacture of 
cards. At N.'s, New York, I saw two girls who each earn $6 
a week, and work only in daylight, and have work all the year. 
I went through D. & Co.'s work rooms, and saw the process of 
making playing cards. A large number of girls were at work, 



368 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

who receive average wages of $4 per week. It requires six 
months to learn well. They do not like to take any learners with 
whose character they are unacquainted; for many, when they 
have learned, will go off where thej r can get better pay. Six 
girls that learned with him last summer were drawn off by an 
employer who offered them twenty-five cents a week more ; but 
when his busy time was over, they came back crying to be taken 
in again. So he made a rule that none should be taken back that 
once leave. (Do not men go where they get the best prices ?) 
They keep all their hands at work, because many of them repre- 
sent three or four others, who are dependent on their labor for 
bread. They give work all the year, and pay a learner according 
to what she accomplishes. They sometimes find it difficult to 
get good hands. They will not take hands from another em- 
ployer unless they bring a note saying they have been honorably 
discharged. It is to avoid getting bad and dishonest workers. 
(If employers in that line of business, or any other, should agree 
never to receive hands from each other's places of business, it 
would cast workers entirely at the mercy of employers.) D.^ays 
their regulations are strict. I thought the girls looked to be 
comfortably situated. Some were cutting cards, some assorting, 
some counting, and some enveloping. Nearly all sat. He thinks 
the business so limited that it is not likely to furnish employment 
to many more. He says girls working at bookbinding and hoop 
skirts are out of employment a great deal ; two thirds of the 
hoop-skirt makers are now out of employment. S. & P. make 
fancy and business cards. S. told me he pays his most experi- 
enced girls $3.50 a week. Learners receive $2.50 a week for four 
weeks — after that, according to activity and capability. He has 
hundreds of applicants, and always selects those who seem most 
destitute. They work ten hours a day. He has had some girls 
several years. To the small girls he pays less. He often has two 
or three girls from the same family. Foreign goods are so much 
preferred by Americans that they put French labels on some. 

Visiting Cards. A., New York, employs two girls to put 
up visiting cards, and pays $3 and $3.50 per week. It does not 
require any time to learn. He now uses a machine for cutting 
that does the work of several girls. I was told by a very obliging 
girl, working in a visiting-card manufactory in New York, that 
to some the occupation is unhealthy, because of the lead inhaled, 
which injures the lungs. In that factory learners are paid $2 a 
week. It requires but a week to learn to cut the cards, which is 
done with a small hand press. The girl knew of two places in 
the city where the work was paid for by the piece ; but in that 
factory they were mostly paid by the week, receiving $3.50 and 



CARD STENCILLERS AXD PAINTERS. 869 

$4, working ten hours a day. It requires from four to six weeks 
to learn. Nimbleness of fingers and ability to count are the most 
desirable qualifications. They have work all the year, except in 
November and December. They sit while cutting, assorting, and 
packing. This work is confined to women, as they are best 
adapted to it. Those in the brushing room stand. Several hun- 
dred girls are employed in New York in the card business. 

379. Card Stencillers and Painters. A stencil en- 
graver told me he cannot use acids in his work, because his 
lungs are weak, and it is very injurious. The business is dull in 
winter, but good in spring and fall. It pays very well when 
there is enough to do. His work has to be done hurriedly, as it 
is generally for merchants who are going to ship goods, and fre- 
quently do not order the plates until the barrels are headed and 
the boxes are nailed. The making of embroidery stencil plates, 
he thinks, would do better for a woman, and that could be done 
without any regard to seasons. A visiting-card writer told me 
he charges $1 a package of fifty-two for plain marking. Mrs. H. 
saw the advertisement of one who writes one hundred cards for 
$1. I. Gr., who makes show cards, says a boy for filling the let- 
ters is paid six cents a sheet. For designing, a person could get 
twenty-four cents a sheet. He could both design and fill thirty 
a day, so earning $1.87^. He knows that the merchants of the 
South used to purchase their cards in New York, and so there 
must be openings in the South for writers of show cards, and 
probably in the West. It requires about one year to learn to 
design well, and two weeks to learn to fill in neatly. Employees 
are paid by the piece. I was told that card painting must be 
done by women, judging from the prices paid — some cards cost- 
ing but twelve cents a piece. I am sure women could do all the 
work. Making the letters is very simple, and filling them up is 
a mere mechanical operation. They can earn, I am confident, 
over $2 a day, if they have enough of work. It is peculiarly 
adapted to women, and some of them should learn it. I saw the 
wife of a German stencil engraver, who assists her husband by 
cutting out with scissors the parts that form the letters. He is 
paid three cents a letter. He can cut forty letters in two or 
three hours. A coat of wax is laid on the plate, and an instru- 
ment used for working out the letters, figures, or design, then an 
acid poured on, and when it has stood for a time removed with 
the wax. It can then be cut out with scissors, or into large let- 
ters and figures with other tools. Writing plates are cut by 
hand, as they can be most neatly and delicately done in that way. 
They are twice as high in price as stencil plates. S., who manu- 
factures show cards, has several times thought of employing 
16* 



370 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

women. They could with a brush fill the outlines, which is now 
done by men, who earn from $2.50 to §18 a week. It would re- 
quire about a year to acquire proficiency in drawing the outlines 
of the letters and using the brush to fill them. He thinks it a 
very suitable business for women, and will probably employ some 
before long. 

380. Cover and Edge Gilders. I think burnishing 
the edges of books could be done by women after they are put in 
the frames, but considerable strength is required in the prepara- 
tory processes of shaving and screwing up. The burnishing is 
done with agates. I doubt whether it requires more strength 
than many other things women do. Laying gold leaf on the 
edges could certainly be done by them. Men that gild the edges 
of books receive from $7 to $9 a week. Men will not fold or 
stitch, because it does not pay well enough. G. says gilding the 
covers of books requires a longer apprenticeship than cither fold- 
ing or sewing ; and at H.'s, workers are paid at first eight cents 
an hour, afterward ten cents an hour. It being piecework, the 
girls are not strictly confined to hours. Book and card edge- 
gilding is done both in England and France by women. 

381. Electrotypers. Electrotyping is now more used 
than stereotyping by those who expect to have many editions of 
a work published. It costs but little more than stereotyping, 
and is either four or six times as durable, I forget which. 
2,000,000 impressions can be taken from an electrotype plate, 
but only 800,000 from a stereotype plate. A boy learning the 
business receives $4 a week the first year, and after that more. 
A journeyman receives $2 a day, and some $2.50. A journey- 
man told us he had spent seven years at it, and he felt that he 
had yet much to learn ; in fact, a person could be always learn- 
ing. Electrotyping would be a useful and profitable occupation 
for women. An apprenticeship of three or four years is given 
to it. 

382. Envelope Makers. At B. & G-.'s, New York, 
girls work by the piece all the year in busy times, and can earn 
from $3 to $6. Most of those who get in factories, do so through 
the influence of friends or acqaintances in or connected with the 
establishment. Their business is increasing. They keep their 
girls all the year. They give lessons in the busy months, August 
and September, February and March, and pay from the first. A 
good hand can earn from $3 to $5. P. & Co. usually employ 
sixty girls. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $4 to 
14.50 a week. The envelopes are made by machines, attended 
by women. They employ five or six girls making envelopes by 
hand, as they have not machines of some sizes. P. thinks the 



ENVELOPE MAKERS. 371 

occupation is full. They have employed their girls all the year. 
. They used to take learners, and give the teachers their profits. 
My companion, Mrs. F., inquired if envelopes could not be more 
easily made where the paper is manufactured. He replied, they 
could not, because paper (and, I believe, all other goods) are 
delivered free of freight in New York, and he can make more by 
being here in the centre of trade, than if he had to send his goods 
here to be sold, and employ some one to sell them. He prefers 
the girls that can be obtained in the villages and country, for he 
thinks them more honest and truthful. He thinks the grade of 
morals altogether superior in the country to that of the city. He 
spoke of the want of moral obligation in the lower classes, arising 
from the want of proper instruction, and the lower you descend 
the worse you find it. The makers of boxes for containing enve- 
lopes they got were such a common set, that they instructed 
some nice American girls how to make them, and now employ 
them. He says the box makers are a commoh set. So I ha*ve 
heard bookbinders, umbrella makers, and hoopskirt workers 
spoken of. But I frequently hear one trade speak disparagingly 
of another. W. told me their girls are paid so much a thousand. 
The envelopes are cut by a machine attended by a man. They 
are folded by a machine managed by two women, who of course 
stand. They are pasted and enveloped by girls who sit. The 
girls earn from $3 to $5 a weak. It requires but two or three 
weeks to acquire the trade. A learner is paid nothing. The 
envelopes are tipped or gummed by a girl, who stands. This is 
the most difficult part of the work done by women, and pays best. 
There are eight factories in New York, one in Philadelphia, and 
one in Connecticut. Nine tenths of the business is done in New 
York. There are probably between two hundred and three hun- 
dred girls employed in the business in that city. W. requires 
references. Some employers are particular in their selection of 
hands — others advertise, and take them as they come. 2,700 
envelopes have been made in an hour by machinery. A manu- 
facturer in Massachusetts writes : " The work is considered par- 
ticularly healthy. Grirls from 12 years up are employed, and 
earn from thirty-three to seventy-five cents a day of ten hours. 
Men are paid from $1 to $2.75 per day. Two are machinists, 
two overseers, and two cutters of envelopes. Women are not 
strong enough for this kind of work. Some parts can be learned 
in a month, some in six months, and in others it requires a year 
to excel. We give the same employment and pay through the 
year, whether our profits are larger or smaller. I employ about 
sixty, one sixth of whom are American. The work is light, and 



372 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

we have constant applications from girls, who prefer this to any 
other manufacturing business in town. Board, $1.50." 

383. Folders and Directors of Newspapers. The 

lady at F. & W.'s who directs the papers for them, says the 
business has been followed by women in New York for fifteen 
years" ""Stalled at the ofiice of the Independent, and saw one of 
the editors, who, on learning my business, kindly invited me into 
the room where the young ladies were employed in directing 
strips of paper to envelop newspapers. It is a pretty business, 
and well adapted to women. Some learn it easily, and some 
never learn it. Dr. C. remarked : " A person may have a willing 
mind, but not an obedient hand." They had one young lady who 
spent five months at it, and then gave it up, because she could 
not succeed. It requires a peculiar aptitude, aside from an expe- 
ditious movement of the pen. It was followed more by women 
eight or nine years ago than now. Many ladies would like to 
get employment of the kind, but cannot. I think all the young 
ladies in the Independent office were American, and were cer- 
tainly very pretty and lady-like. They have a separate room to 
write in. They spend about eight hours directing envelopes for 
papers to send away. One earns $6 a week, another $5, and 
another $4. The one that first came is permitted to have as 
much work as she can do. The next has what she leaves, and the 
third the remainder. The objections made by some men to em- 
ploying ladies are that they do not like to have women work in 
the same room where they are. They feel under more restraint, 
and not so free to say what they please. Such a restraint may 
be a wholesome one. Many women make the same objection in 
regard to working with men. Again, if a lady does not work as 
they wish, or is idle, they do not like to correct her, because 
women are more quick to resent. The last excuse is a poor one. 
They also waste much time by having their beaux call on them. 
Some urge they find a boy more useful, because they can put him 
to doing something else, when he is not busy writing. In the 
Tribune ofiice, men are employed because they can do it more 
rapidly. It is said some direct eight hundred envelopes in an 
hour. In some offices the girls are expected to seal the papers, 
but not in all. At the Cosmopolitan Art Association, I saw a 
lady that is employed in directing the Art Journals that are sent 
by mail. The covers are put on by a boy. She receives $9 a 
week, and spends about eight hours writing. At the rooms of the 
A. C. Association, we saw three ladies directing envelopes for the 
report of the society. The Association issues a monthly maga- 
zine, and at the time of its issue employs the same ladies for the 
purpose of enveloping and directing them. At other times they 



INK — LABEL CUTTEKS. 373 

employ but one. She has been there ten years, and is very effi- 
cient. She attends to the books containing the names of sub- 
scribers, assists the treasurer sometimes, writes letters for the 
secretary, and makes herself generally useful in that way. All 
the ladies complained of women being so poorly paid. The one 
who has been there ten years says, for the $350 a year she 
gets, they could not secure a young man's services for less 
than 8700 or $800. The others are paid 63 ceDts per thousand 
for directing, and ten cents per hundred for sealing and direc- 
ting. 

384, Ink. A large quantity of writing and printing ink is 
used in this country. There are factories for making each kind. 
Making printing ink is hard and dirty work, unsuitable for women. 
Some persons cut stencil plates and make indelible ink, and em- 
ploy agents to sell the ink and plates. Indelible, and all writing 
inks, could be made and bottled by women. Care should be 
taken that the acids used do not touch the flesh. Common clothes 
should be worn while at work, as both the ingredients and com- 
pound are of a kind to injure clothes. A maker of writing ink 
in New York, employs three girls in summer for bottling and 
labelling, and pays $3.50, working from seven till dark. He 
never employed any in winter, but if his business extends, he will 
employ his girls all the year, paying the same price in winter. 
He has found it difficult to get good hands. The prospect for 
learners is poor. A manufacturer of ink writes : u I have never 
yet employed female help, though I am satisfied that most of the 
work in my laboratory might be as well done by women as men. 
The employment is not unhealthy. My men work ten hours a 
day, and are paid by the month. 

385. Label Cutters. At P. Brothers', I was told some 
of their labels are cut by hand, and some by machinery. The 
first are square or oblong, the others are of different shapes. 
Those cut with shears are most neatly done. For cutting by 
hand the price is one cent per hundred. They take them home. 
A lady and her two daughters, who work for them, often receive 
§50 a month. Those cut by machinery could not well be cut by 
women. It requires practice to make one expert. B. pays a 
girl by the hundred to cut labels at home. He would employ a 
girl to cut and attend his store, paying $3 a week from the first, 
but she must not be absent a day. If her health is such that 
she cannot always be there, he does not want her. He had one 
three and a half years, who was absent only ten days during that 
time. S. says cutting labels is always piecework, and a good 
worker can earn from $4 to $6 a week. He gives them out, and 
they are cut by hand. Common ones, for spices, mustard, &c, 



374 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

are cut by machinery. It does not require long to become ex- 
pert. The business is always dull in December and January. 

386. Lead Pencils. The young man at the agency for 
the sale of Fabers pencils, says they are made at Steinway, 
Germany, and he thinks women there are employed in varnishing 
the wood of the pencils and tying them up.. The pencils are 
either painted or the simple wood varnished. " A man in New 
York is reported to have made $60,000 by selling lead pencils 
about the streets at a penny a piece, and safely investing his pro- 
fits." Some large pencils, such as are used by carpenters, were 
some time back made in Massachusetts. The writing part of lead 
pencils is made of lead and clay, mixed, pressed, and burnt. The 
wooden part is in two pieces that are united when the lead is put 
in. In Germany each man has his own part to do. Children 
do some parts of it, such as joining the wood. 

387. Operatives in Paper Factories. Paper is of 
various qualities and colors, and is adapted to different purposes. 
At least one half of the operatives in paper factories in the United 
States are females, amounting to several thousand. Water 
power is used in some paper mills, but in most large mills steam 
is used. Women are employed in paper mills to sift, sort, and 
cut up rags. It is dusty, disagreeable work, and we presume 
not particularly healthy, as much of the dust is no doubt inhaled. 
In some factories, women attend the picking and cutting machines 
and calenders. They are also employed for hanging, laying off, 
reeling, folding, assorting, counting, enveloping, and labelling the 
paper. The inability to meet fully the demand for rags in the 
manufacture of paper has led to experimenting with a variety of 
articles. One agent for the sale of paper made in New Jersey, 
and the foreman of the same establishment, told me their girls 
get from $2.50 to $3 a week. The majority receive $2.50. Part 
work six consecutive hours, have a rest of one hour, then six 
consecutive hours more, that is from six at night till seven in the 
morning, having one hour at midnight ; the other half from 7 
a. m. till 6 p. m., having an hour at noon. The day and night 
workers take week about. They board for $1.50 a week. In Lee, 
Mass., women get $3.50 and $4, and the men twice as much. 
Women are paid best in the ruling department. In the paper 
factories in New York, women receive from $3 to $5 per week. 
Paper maker's girls, $1.50 to $2.50 per week. S. says, in some 
paper factories girls are able to earn 86 a week. All the labor 
in paper mills, except attending to the fires and machinery, could 
be done by women. All manufacturers report the occupation as 
healthy, except one in South Adams, who states that small pox 
is sometimes taken from the rags — not often. A paper manu- 



OPERATIVES IN PAPER FACTORIES. 375 

facturer in Lee, Mass., writes : " Women are employed in all 
countries where paper is made. The time of learning depends 
upon their skill and developments in certain directions in the 
business. They are usually paid by the piece. Men are paid 
more because their labor is greater. Boys learn the business in 
about five years, girls in about one year. In learning they gen- 
erally receive enough to pay their board. They work at all 
seasons — sometimes have nothing to do in July. There is a de- 
mand for hands in the loft, a surplus in the rag room." t The 
New England Roofing Co. manufacture a felt, which is similar 
to sheathing paper, but made of a fine stock. They employ six 
females in sorting rags and other materials for the felt, and pay 
from $3 to $5 per week, one half the price of males. They work 
eleven hours, and pay $2 per week for board. A manufacturer 
of wrapping and wall paper, in Connecticut, writes " he employs 
a few females, and pays fifty cents per day of from eight to ten 
hours. He prefers them because most economical. Those work- 
ing by the piece can earn from fifty to seventy-five cents per day. 
He pays men $1 per day for doing like work. They require less 
attention, and can perform other work when wanted, that is not 
suitable for females to perform. He usually pays beginners the 
same as others when they work by the day. His most busy time 
is when there is most water for power. An active person can 
usually earn as much in from six to eight hours as a house girl 
is paid for a full day's work." A manufacturer at Niagara Falls 
" employs between forty and fifty women, paying each from $2.50 
to $4 per week, without board. They are paid about one half less 
than men, because boys would do. The prospect of employment 
is good. They are most busy in summer, although they run the 
whole year, day and night (except Sunday). They are twelve 
hours on, and twelve hours off. Board, $1.25 to $1.75. A firm 
in South Adams, Mass., write me: "We pay by the piece and 
the day. The prices for female labor, we think, compared with 
work done, better than for male. It requires no time to learn to 
cut rags, but experienced hands can earn more wages. For fin- 
ishing, from four to six months are given. Women are paid while 
learning. We employ women always, when they can do the labor. 
L Women are superior in the neatness with which they do their 
work. New England, and such States as have abundance of clear 
spring water, are the best. Board, from $1.25 to $2 per week. 
We think, perhaps, that at present the business of paper making 
is pretty fully supplied with laborers, male and female, in this 
section of the country, yet good help finds ready employment, at 
fair wages." Manufacturers of bank-note paper, in Lee, Mass., 
inform me by mail, they " pay by the piece, to women, from $3 



376 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

to $4.50 per week. It would require five years for a man to 
learn the business, so as to properly superintend it. That portion 
done by women can be learned in one month." A newspaper 
manufacturer in Taunton, Mass., writes : " Fifty or sixty women 
are employed by me, in manufacturing cotton goods and news 
paper. I pay by the piece and the week, from $2.50 to $6 per 
week, depending on the age. I give equal pay to both sexes for 
the same work. They are employed the year round, and work 
eleven hours on the average. The climate of New England is 
best adapted to indoor labor." Paper manufacturers in Dalton 
write : " We pay women by the piece, from $12 to $16 per 
month, and they have work all the year. No men are employed 
for the same kind of work. For other branches of the business, 
men are paid from $25 to $35 per month. Women are paid 
while learning for what they accomplish. The prospect for work 
is good. We employ women because they are cheaper. They 
pay for board $1.25." A firm in Russell, Mass., write : " We 
employ from forty to fifty ; one tenth are Americans. They can 
all live comfortably and earn good wages. New England is the 
best part of this country for fine paper mills, on account of the 
purity of the water. Board, $1.50 to $1.75." 

388. Paper-Bag Makers. At a paper-bag factory in 
Brooklyn, the man pays from $1.50 to $2 a week to his girls. They 
work ten hours. The work is all done by hand. The bags are 
considered better than those made by machinery. He has twenty- 
six girls at work. Some he pays by the quantity ; for ?ome kinds, 
twenty cents a hundred ; for some, thirty-seven cents. Those that 
work by the piece have a forewoman, with whom he makes a con- 
tract. She cleared $14 one week. It takes but a week to 
learn. Work is furnished all the year. Some have worked for 
him five years. Paper-bag manufacturers in Watertown, Mass., 
write : " We employ six women in tending bag machines, and 
pay seventy cents per day of ten and a half hours. To males 
we pay one third more. It requires about one month to learn, 
and all that is necessary are care and application. Summer and 
fall are the best seasons, but they can have work the year round. 
We will not have any but American girls. Women are more 
accustomed to sitting, but cannot keep the machine in order. 
Their dress is objectionable, particularly their hoops, which take 
up much room, and are in danger of getting in the machinery." 

389. Paper-Box Makers. Though this may seem a 
trivial business, it is one very extensively carried on. Every 
size and shape is called for. The most are made, we suppose, 
in New York and Philadelphia, as greater demands exist there, 
owing to the variety and quantity of goods manufactured and 



Tpapee-box makers. 377 

offered for sale. Boxes are almost entirely made by women. I 
think most of the men in this trade in New York are Germans. 
The occupation for women is pretty well filled. The bandbox 
manufacture is a distinct branch. Some women, who make small 
match boxes, receive but one cent for thirty boxes. At a place 
in New. York where seventeen girls are employed, I was told they 
are paid by the piece, and some can earn as much as $5 a week. 
The calling can be learned in three or four weeks. At one 
place, where they make bandboxes also, the girls earn from $2 to 
$5. At another, they earn from $2.50 to $5. Some seasons of the 
year are better than others. They have mostly American girls. It 
is sometimes difficult to get good hands. They keep their hands all 
the year. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. Very little 
sewing is ever done — mostly cutting and pasting. In some large 
factories, machinery is used for much of the work. K. employs 
a number of hands all the year. They work by the piece (cus- 
tomary plan), and earn from $1.50 to $6. They are paid $1.50 
per week from the time they begin to learn. He thinks there 
are not more than from ^.ve hundred to six hundred females in 
New York employed in his branch. There were three hundred 
in Philadelphia about fifteen months ago. One paper-box maker 
told me he pays fifty cents a hundred, and a smart girl can make 
one hundred and fifty in a day. He gives employment all the 
year ; his brother, in the spring and fall. The work is always, 
I think, cut out by a man. B.'s girls are paid by the piece, and 
earn about $4 a week. While learning, his girls are paid $2 a 
week. It requires but two or three months to become skilful. 
I noticed the girls in some work rooms sat, and some stood. I was 
told those making small boxes sit, but those making large boxes 
stand, because of the time consumed in rising to reach the parts 
needed to be joined. Learners work with F. fourteen days for 
nothing, and then are paid by the hundred. Some can accom- 
plish more than others in the same time, because they are quicker 
with their fingers and apply themselves more closely. In putting 
on labels, it is best to stand, as it can be done more expeditiously. 
It is best for girls to learn where the cheap kind of boxes are 
to be made. Those that make fine boxes are seldom willing to 
take learners, because of the materials that are wasted in learn- 
ing. Good hands can get work all the year ; indifferent hands 
are likely to get out of employment for one or two months. The 
girls in the trade are mostly Irish and German. For three months, 
the past year, F. was out of hands. He deserved to be all the 
time, for his factory was on the fifth floor, and the steps of the 
open wood kind. So girls must have been very much exposed in 



378 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

going up and down stairs, as every flight of stairs led to a floor 
on which men were at work. At C.'s, I was told his best workers 
earn from $4 to $6 a week, and are paid by the gross. They never 
work over ten hours, as his work is of a large kind. In some fac- 
tories, where the boxes made are small, the girls are allowed to 
take work home with them to do in the evening. He keeps his 
best hands all the year. He requires two weeks of learners, and 
then pays them according to the amount of work done. Another 
box maker gives his work to three or four families in an adjoining 
city. His workers earn from $3 to $4 per week. A girl sewing 
small bandboxes told me she is paid six cents a dozen, and can 
usually sew ten dozen a day. It takes but a week to learn. They 
are most bu^j in spring and fall. In pasting, girls can earn from 
$4 to $5 a week. The girls sewing, sat ; those pasting, stood. At 
another factory I was told April and September are their most 
busy months, and then they take learners. Most box makers have 
steady work. If they are not making boxes for one branch of 
trade, they are for another — confectioners, candle makers, &c. 
The business is increasing. Girls can earn from $3 to $7. There 
are openings in New Orleans. It is difficult to get good hands in 
busy times. It takes some time to become expert. A boy re- 
marked to me that paper-box makers are a hard set ; but I find 
there is considerable jealousy and envy existing between some 
members of the different trades, and consequently always make 
some allowance for what I hear. A firm of paper-box manufac- 
turers in Connecticut write : " Women are employed by us to 
run machinery, making paper boxes, &c. It is healthy, clean, 
neat work. Average wages are seventy-eight cents per day, includ- 
ing board. Our male help are employed at some laborious work, 
which females could not perform. Average price paid men is 
$1.25 per day, of eleven hours. No time is required to learn the 
paper-box business, but practice makes it more remunerative. 
There are advantages- in being in large cities ; but, having no 
market near, we prefer the country, on the ground of better 
advantages for our help, and its being easier to procure trusty, 
intelligent girls to labor. Our women have constant employment, 
and are superior to men in their work. Most of them are well 
suited for making good wives, being from eighteen to twenty-five 
years of age. Board, $1.75." B., of Philadelphia, writes: 
" We pay women from $2.50 to $5 per week, working by the 
piece. Men's wages are double, as they generally have families. 
Neatness and to be good sewers are desirable. They generally 
have work the year round The demand is greatest in Philadel- 
phia, New York, and the Eastern States. We employ them be- 
cause of their ability to use the needle. Women are superior in 



PAPER MARBLERS RULERS. 379 

their own branch." A manufacturer of hook-and-eye and button 
boxes writes : " We employ twelve women, and pay by the piece, 
from $4 to $6 a week. Women's wages are low, because of the 
competition in the article manufactured. Time of learning de- 
pends upon the natural skill of the learner — one can learn for 
years. The prospect for a continuance of this work is good. 
The price, and fittedness for the work, recommend women to us." 

390. Paper Marfolers. I saw the process of marbling — 
something very suitable for women, if they would properly qual- 
ify themselves for it. The young man said a paper mar bier in 
Philadelphia used to employ some women to assist him, but he 
had to mix their paints. A paper marbler in Boston writes : " I 
do not know of any females being employed as marblers of book 
edges in the United States. Some are employed in marbling 
paper for the covers and linings of books." 

391. Paper Rulers. In ruling paper for blank books 
and ledgers, females are employed in some establishments to feed 
the machine. It is not difficult to learn, though there are not 
many willing to take learners, as considerable paper must be 
wasted before they can become proficient. Only a few weeks are 
required, and they are seldom paid while learning. $1 a week is 
a fair average for female workers. Very closely connected with 
this branch is that of paging blank books. It may be learned in 
from ten to twelve days. This is a limited business, and would 
not justify many in learning. K. thinks thirty girls would sup- 
ply the demand for the whole United States. The most busy 
season is from the first of July to the last of October, and they 
seldom refuse any applicants during this season. March and 
April are also busy months. About half the hands are retained 
through the dull season. The girls earn from $5 to $6 a week ; 
the forewoman something more. All are required to be orderly 
and respectable, and there are no associations that would have an 
immoral tendency. A journeyman paper ruler in Boston writes : 
" There are a few girls employed in this city at ruling, i. e. y 
where they feed on the paper, watch the work, fixing it when it 
requires attention, &c. The paper is trimmed for them, it being 
hard work, and requiring a man's strength to do it. The wages 
are from $3 to $4.50 per week — $3.75 about the average — and 
when they board away from home, pay $2 to $2.25 per week. I 
work by the piece, and make sometimes $10, sometimes $16 per 
week ; can make $12 and $13 per week well enough, nine hours 
to the day. One disadvantage females have, is, that some 
of them are inclined to marry when a good opportunity 
is offered. I wish to be understood that this is a disad- 
vantage only as keeping down the price of female labor. The 



3S0 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

young man learns his trade, then he marries. He does not 
quit the shop, but still improves in skill in his trade. The 
female, when she marries, bids farewell to the shop and her 
trade. Nine or ten hours a clay is as long as girls work at our 
trade here. One great objection girls have to our trade is, they 
do not like to soil their hands with the ruling ink, and one can- 
not get through much ruling without soiling their hands more or 
less." 

392. Press Feeders. " The number of women who feed 
power presses in printing offices in Philadelphia may number one 
hundred and fifty. They can earn, upon an average, $4 per week." 
At the Methodist Book Concern, New York, they pay to press 
feeders the usual price, $4 per week. It requires about six months 
to become a good press feeder. When work is scarce, they re- 
tain all their hands, if possible, but work a less number of hours, 
and pay in proportion. At a blank-book manufactory I was told 
their girls are paid $6 a week for feeding. Their girls think they 
make poor wages when they earn but ten cents an hour. Some 
embossers, in Boston, who employ thirty women in binding and 
press feeding, write : " They pay both by the week and by the 
piece. Their women, on an average, earn $5 per week. Female 
labor is thirty-three per cent, cheaper than men's, and the part 
done by women is too effeminate for men. Women spend from . 
one to two months learning. Prospect of employment in this 
branch is good. The women work ten hours. They are out of 
employment in summer. Board, $1.50 to $2.50." At a print- 
ing office where from forty to fifty women were employed, I was 
told the girls were mostly German, because the foreman was a 
German. It requires four weeks to learn. They work ten hours 
a day, and are never thrown out of employment. The demand 
seems to be fully met in New York. 

393. Printers. " In 1476, Fra Domenico da Pistoya and 
Fra Pietro da Pisa, the spiritual directors of a Dominican con- 
vent, established a printing press within its walls; the nuns 
served as compositors, and many works of considerable value 
issued from this press between 1476 and 1484, when, Bartolo- 
meo da Pistoya dying, the nuns ceased their labors." In the 
Victoria Printing Office, of London, all the compositors' work 
is done by women. The Printers' Unions in the United States 
have done all they could to prevent women from entering the 
occupation and obtaining employment. Men's employments in 
the cities, they say, are now filled, and if women enter, men's 
wages will fall. They do fall, at any rate, because women will 
work for less than men. To obviate this difficulty, I would sug- 
gest that more men engage in agricultural and other occupations 



PEIXTEES. 381 

that will take them out of the cities. At present, the war de- 
mands large numbers. A printer told me that type settiog could 
be carried on more easily by women in towns and villages than 
in cities, where men are slaves to the Unions. In the latest rules 
of the Printers' Union, New York, a printer is not prohibited 
from working in the office with a woman. Yet few publishers 
are willing to employ them, because it is supposed they are em- 
ployed for less wages. At a printers' convention, held recently 
in Springfield, 111., the following resolutions were adopted : 
u Whereas, the employment of females in printing offices, as com- 
positors, has, wherever adopted, been found a decided benefit, 
both as regards the moral tendencies inculcated and the depend- 
ence to be placed in their constant presence and ctttendance upon 
the duties required of them, and as a means of opening a wider 
field of remunerative labor to a deserving class of society ; there- 
fore, be it resolved, That the Association recommend to its 
members the employment of females in their offices, wherever and 
whenever practicable." Printing is mostly paid for by the thou- 
sand ems. More is paid for printing from manuscript than for 
reprint. Newspaper is paid rather higher than book printing, 
and morning papers more than evening. Much has been said of 
the unhealthiness of a printer's work. The majority of causes 
that render it so are not confined to the occupation itself. Some 
printers must work during the night. Their habits become 
irregular, and many run into dissipation. The rooms occupied 
by some are poorly ventilated, and so poorly lighted as even in 
the day to require artificial light, which helps to absorb the oxy- 
gen of the atmosphere. When type are heated they emit an odor 
that affects respiration, and will in the course of time paralyze 
the hand. But there is no necessity for using them when heated. 
The standing position of compositors weakens the organs of 
digestion ; but compositors can as well sit as stand. Stools may 
occasionally be seen in the offices of men. Bending over the 
stone to correct is not more tiresome than bending over cloth 
when sewing. A good education and general intelligence are 
necessary for a printer. A gentleman connected with a printing 
office remarked to me that printers generally possess much desul- 
tory information, but have not their faculties more fully developed 
than people in most other trades. Women's fineness of touch and 
quickness of motion will fit them for type setting. " They might 
be instructed, not merely to compose and distribute, but to cor- 
rect, make up, impose forms, and prepare the type completely for 
the press or stereotype foundery." A man should be employed 
to carry the chases to the press room. When the pressman has 
had the type inked and used them, he should have the form 



382 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

washed and returned to the compositors' room. When women 
have had as much experience as men in the printing business, 
they will be fair competitors. In most large cities, and even 
towns, many are now employed in type setting ; but they are 
much scattered, and consequently not much is known of them. 
In Boston, women have been engaged in type setting for nearly 
thirty years, in New York eight years, and in Philadelphia five 
years. More girls are employed as type setters in Boston than 
any other city of the United States. They set type for nearly all 
the large periodicals. They are paid less than men ; but some 
earn $8 a week. F., of Boston, who employs some women as 
type setters, writes : " I pay twenty cents per thousand ems, 
which averages to a good hand about $6 or $7 per week. It re- 
quires about six months to learn type setting. I pay my learn- 
ers, because I consider it to my advantage in the long run to 
do so. Type setters with an ordinary education will improve 
as they progress. In a few years, women will work in many 
branches that to-day would be termed innovation. I consider 
winter the best season for printing books and periodicals. On 
account of neatness and taste, women are well suited for the orna- 
mental branches of printing." The proprietors of a printing 
house in Boston, who have some thought of employing females, 
write me : u The printing business is considered rather unhealthy, 
on account of its being both mental and physical. It requires 
from two to three years to become good workmen at our business 
for males, and would take about the same time for females, 
although our business is now classed composition room and press 
room, and females are sometimes employed in other offices in 
both rooms. Our business does not vary much, except in the 
month of August, when it is generally dull. Our number of 
hours for work are ten, the year through. Our business is not 
considered very laborious, and females make from $4 to $8 
per week. Men are generally superior to women in educa- 
tion and judgment. The printing business is almost a school for 
learning. Board, from $1.50 to $2.50." The largest number of 
printers in New York are employed on books and periodicals. I 
think it likely there are more Americans employed in the book- 
making trade in New York than any other trade. From an arti- 
cle on " Printers," in the New York Tribune of April, 1853, we 
extract the following : " We estimate the services of a competent 
young woman at type setting as worth in this city $2 per week, 
after a fortnight — $4 per week, after three months — $6 per week, 
after a year — $8, after two years. Every compositor on the Tri- 
bune at work at the case has thirty-seven cents per thousand 
ems, and thirty cents per hour for steady time." The present 



PRINTEES. 383 

price required by members of the New York Typographical Union 
for newspaper work, when employed by the week, is $12 — ten hours 
constituting a day's work. For book and job work §11 is required. 
At the Day Book office I saw one of the editors, who thinks 
women do not correct so well as men, and they want self-reliance. 
Besides, they cannot lift the forms. Men are paid better for 
these reasons. He thinks more women might very advantage- 
ously be employed in setting type for papers. Job printing he 
thinks not so well adapted to them, because of the variety in the 
work, and the judgment and self-reliance required. Two of 
the girls in the Day Book office have with their earnings bought 
their mother a home in the country. Their girls are more in- 
telligent, have more pride, and dress better than most working 
girls. 'To set type requires more intelligence than most shopgirls 
possess. The foreman of the same paper writes : " We employ ten 
womea, whose exclusive business is type setting. Seven are 
American women. I deem the employment of type setting un- 
healthy, but not more injurious to women than it is to men. We 
pay women twenty cents per thousand ems. Men receive 
thirty-one cents per thousand ems in our office. Women are not 
as competent to do all kinds of work as men, particularly in a 
newspaper office ; hence the difference in wages. The time of 
learning depends almost wholly on the aptitude of the new be- 
ginner. Some persons (men as well as women) would or could 
not learn the business in a lifetime. Women have been paid 
while learning in this office. A knowledge of the English 
language, and a disposition to improve that knowledge on all 
suitable occasions, are the principal requisites. The general order 
of intellect did not amount to much, when we first tried the ex- 
periment ; those who have worked steady have improved wonder- 
fully. They work ten hours per clay. Average wages $6.50 per 
week in this office. With proper training and instruction, they 
would be competent to do any portion of the work not requiring 
too much physical exertion. The best seasons for a printer's 
work depend almost wholly on circumstances. Large cities are 
the best places for the printer who wishes to have steady em- 
ployment." T., of New York, told me " he employed girls for a 
while, and would have retained them if he could have had time 
to attend to the composition department. He paid his girls the 
same price he did his men. He thinks it strange that more 
broken-down ministers and worn-out school teachers do not turn 
to type setting, as it is learned in a very short time, requires in- 
telligence, and demands no outlay of muscle. On the principle 
that a stout muscular man should be a blacksmith, and a small 
delicate one a watchmaker, a woman should be a type setter. A 



384 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

girl should begin when young. Women are no more thrown 
with men in type setting than in feeding presses. In all large 
establishments, type setting and press work are done in separate 
rooms." I think if some lady teachers would learn the art of 
printing and get places as forewomen, they could from girls ob- 
tain as much work as a foreman does from boys ; but he thinks it 
difficult for a foreman to be exacting with women, particularly 
with those who are old enough to be sensitive and self-willed. 
He thinks, " in New York, women are not so much employed in 
intelligent occupations as in Boston. In the cities printers make 
most all their profits off two-thirders, as they are called — boys who 
have not attained their majority, and do their work as well for 
much less than journeymen. His son, a boy of sixteen, earns 
from $5 to $6 a week as type setter." H., in New York, employs 
three girls. They get $6 a week of ten hours a day. They can 
sit if they choose. They have a room to work in, separate from 
the men. At W.'s, opposite, a youth told me a fast worker could 
earn $8 a week. The girls there were working in the same room 
with the men. J., of Philadelphia, said he used to employ 
women to print his labels, but they demanded $6 a week, and 
men he could get for $9. He told the women they were cutting 
their throats in asking so much. He said women should not ex- 
pect as high wages as men, even if they did their work as well, 
and as much of it, for they would thereby displace men; and be- 
sides, you could not order women about as you could men. B., 
editor of the Pittsburg Commercial Journal, employs six girls 
as compositors. Connected with his office are two journeymen, 
who set type after 6 p. m., reporting telegraphic and local news. 
All type setting should be done by women in the day, unless they 
board very near, or in the house of the printing office, because of 
the exposure of going home late at night. Three fourths of the 
work of a printing office could be done by women. Afternoon 
and weekly papers could be very well printed by ladies, as they 
are printed in the day. One of B.'s lady compositors receives 
$7 a week, another $6, and the others $4 and $3.50. They work 
eight or nine hours a day ; and to a learner they pay $1.50 a week, 
until she can set type correctly — then more ; and in two years she 
will be very nearly or quite perfect in the art. It requires 
quickness of eye and linger to succeed. At the office of the 
Detroit Daily Democrat, girls as apprentices are paid from $3 
to $4 per week, and those advanced twenty-five cents per thousand 
ems. " The compositors' office of the Ohio Farmer, at Cleveland, 
has four apprentice girls. Compensation light at present, but 
after the first year they will have the same that journeymen are 
receiving in this place, i. e., twenty-five cents per thousand ems." 



SEALING-WAX MAKERS — STEREOTYFEES. 385 

A lady learning to set type in Indiana writes : " I think the reason 
of the printers objecting to my learning was that I was not required 
to run of errands, or, in other words, be the ' devil ' of the office, 
as boys are who learn the printing business. Besides, my com- 
pensation is better than theirs, in consequence of my ability to 
do more than they. I receive my board and $50 a year while 
learning ; after that, journeyman's wages by the week or by the 
thousand ems, as I prefer. In this time I can learn to do all, 
except the press work, making up, &c. The girls employed as 
type setters in the office receive $3 per week while learning." I 
have been told that in Rochester, Buffalo, and New Haven, print- 
ing is done more cheaply than in New York, and some publishers 
send their printing to those towns to have it done. A great deal 
of raised printing is done for the blind in the United States, but 
women do not work at that. Printers were wanted &ome time 
back in Charleston, S. C, and when affairs become settled. in the 
South, we doubt not there will be many openings for printers. 
An institution has been founded in Edinburg for teaching girls the 
art of printing. Monsieur P. says in many of the villages of 
France it is difficult to get printers. He proposes that a certain 
number of girls be qualified for the work, as women are well 
suited to such work, and it is of a kind that pleases those who 
have tried it. 

394. Sealing-Wax Makers. D., sealing-wax, ink, and 
mucilage manufacturer, employs two girls in putting up carmine 
ink and gum mucilage, also in rolling, stamping, and boxing 
sealing wax. To one he pays $5 a week, to the other $4. He 
employs his girls all the year. Making sealing wax is too heavy 
work for women, D. thought, and there is not much demand for 
the kind used in sealing letters. Self-sealing envelopes and 
mucilage have done away with both wafers and wax. In the 
United States, one pound is sold where formerly one ton was sold. 
Had the use of wafers increased with correspondence, it would 
have been an extensive business ; but the making and baking of 
wafers, D. thought, was too heavy work for women. I expect it is 
not more so than making and baking bread. But little ink is made 
in the South and West. C. said women could not make sealing 
wax, because of the danger of being about the fire. I suggested 
there is not more than in cooking. He said lifting the vessels is 
very heavy. 

395. Stereotypers. All the first plates in this country 
were moulded by a Sirs. Watts, the wife of an Englishman, who 
introduced the art from London. Stereotyping could be learned 
by womenk It is an interesting employment, but requires intel- 
ligence and judgment. In stereotyping, one department of labor 

if 



386 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

is that of correcting metal plates. If a letter is wanting, a type 
is soldered in the plate. If any of the letters or spaces are filled 
with superfluous metal, it is removed. I think stereotyping an 
occupation well adapted to skilful and educated women. It re- 
quires an apprenticeship of three or four years. 

396. Type Rubbers and Setters. At P. & Co.'s, I 
saw the whole process of type making. They employ some 
women to rub type, and some to set them up. The setters earn 
from §1.50 to $2 a week. It is very simple, but there is much 
difference in the quantity done by different individuals. A care- 
ful and rapid manipulation is desirable for the worker, as it is 
paid for by the number of types set up. The rubbers are paid by 
the pound, and earn from $8 to $9 a week. Some people can rub 
2,000 types in an hour. The fingers become hardened. P. & Co. 
do not employ many American girls, for American girls do not 
like such dirty work, and most of them dislike to work where men 
are. Breaking off the jets is in some places done by women. It 
is a mechanical operation for removing the inequalities of the 
metal, caused by the imperfect chasing of the moulds. It requires 
a very rapid movement of the hand, but is not a laborious opera- 
tion. It is said that some fast workers can break off 5,000 in an 
hour. Girls are employed at type rubbing and setting, in the same 
room with men. Type are cut of a soft metal, from which copper 
moulds are taken for forming printers' type. It requires a steady 
hand, a correct eye, and some practice to cut them, but not much 
strength. It could be done by women. B. thinks the work is 
not unhealthy. I suppose the same objection as regards health 
might be made to breaking off the jets, type rubbing, and type 
setting, that is often made to the business of a compositor — that 
the lead in the metal has a tendency to paralyze the arm ; but I 
have never heard the objection offered. B. does not pay learners. 
Prospect for employment tolerable. When times are good, he 
keeps girls all the year. They are paid by the quantity. The 
little girls can earn $2.50 each, and some of the larger girls, who 
are very expert, can earn $4.50. Girls always sit in rubbing 
type. In setting up, I think they can sit or stand, as they please. 
There will be a demand for type so long as books and papers are 
printed. I suppose there will now be an opening in the South 
for type founderies. W. takes learners, and pays by the quantity 
from the first. All his women sit while at work. It is not 
healthy work, because of the lead floating in the atmosphere be- 
ing inhaled. He can always get hands by advertising. Setters 
get about $2.50 a week, and rubbers $3, and S3. 50. C. says, if 
type rubbers are industrious and attentive, they can earn from 
$3 to $7 a week. Rubbing pays better than setting, but is quite 



WALL-PAPER GILDEES. 387 

laborious. Setters earn from $2 to $3.50, and are generally 
small girls. They are always paid by the quantity. It does not 
require long to learn. The prospect is good for employment. In 
ordinary times they are employed all the year. At H.'s, I was 
told that girls are never taught rubbing until they have learned 
setting, as rubbing pays best, and it is not fair to give a learner 
the advantage of an old hand. Setters cannot earn more than 
$2.50 a week ; rubbers, from $4 to $6. He gives work ail the 
year. Some of his girls are always absent on Monday. He 
thinks there are from 700 to 800 girls in founderies in New 
York. His girls earn from $3 to $6 a week. Printers, he says, 
are always first to suffer in a panic. A type founder in Buffalo, 
writes : " I employ fifteen American girls in finishing type, and 
pay by the piece. They earn from $3 to $5 per week. One day 
is sufficient to learn, and nimble fiogers greatly assist. Seasons 
make no difference with the work. The work is easy in a warm 
room in winter." The proprietors of the Boston Type Foundery 
sent me the following intelligence by mail : " We employ about 
twenty women in breaking, rubbing, and setting type. The 
metallic dust from the type is considered unwholesome. We pay 
by the piece. The girls are from ten to twenty years of age, and 
average from $1 to $6 per week, working from six to nine hours. 
But a short time is required to learn the parts, except rubbing, 
which occupies some months. They are paid while learning. All 
other parts of our business, except those mentioned, are too severe 
for women. The prospect for a continuance of work is toler- 
able." 

397. Wall Paper Gilders. Most of the wall paper 
used in the United States for many years past has been made in 
Philadelphia, and I believe it is still thought to produce the best 
qualities. There are three modes of impressing wall paper : one by 
printing, another by stencilling, and the third by painting with a 
brush. In the cheapest paper, the outlines are printed and the 
colors put on by stencil plates. For printing, large blocks are 
used that are cut by hand, and for each color a separate block 
must be used. This work forms a separate occupation, that of a 
block cutter. For the finest papers, the outlines are printed, and 
then filled by the use of the brush. The ailments of colorers of 
wall paper arise principally from the coloring matter, much of 
' which is very poisonous. " By laboring upon arsenical paper in 
the finishing department, small tumors are produced, and some 
have to change their occupation in consequence." At H.'s store, 
Philadelphia, the young man told me they employ girls from 
twelve to sixteen years of age, for putting gilding on paper. 
They work ten hours, and earn from $3.50 to $4.50 a week. 



388 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

They merely lay gilding on, which is fastened by the pressure 
of machinery. Some manufacturers have the gilding put on 
with a size. At C.'s, New York, the foreman told me they 
employ two girls, at $3 a week each. A powder is sprinkled 
on by boys, which, by the way, could be done by girls. The 
girls then lay the gold leaf on the powder. A machine then 
passes over the gold leaf, making an impression by a die, of the 
pattern desired. Another branch of labor in which they employ- 
ed girls for a time, was the rolling of paper for the store. It re- 
quires a peculiar tact acquired by practice only. They are paid 
seven cents for 100 rolls, each roll containing eight yards. It 
would take a brisk and careful hand to become at all expert three 
months, at which time she could earn about sixty cents a day, of 
ten hours' work. At the end of three months more she would, 
perhaps, be able to earn an additional twenty cents a day. It 
makes the fingers very sore, as considerable force is thrown into 
the tips of the fingers. Some fingers cannot become hardened to 
it, and the individual has to give it up. C — 's have work all the 
year, except a week in summer, and one in winter, and when the 
machinery is out of repair. They have most to do in winter, 
getting their paper ready for spring sale, and to send away to the 
West and South. It is not unhealthy labor. Many girls might 
be employed in departments now occupied by boys. At N. C. & 
Co.'s, I was told by a young German that from one hundred to 
one hundred and fifty boys are employed in that building, but no 
women or girls. There are several parts that could be done by 
women. The common paper is rolled by machinery, the fine by 
hand. In one factory in Boston, girls are employed to roll, and 
in one in some other part of Massachusetts. Paper stainers in 
Nashua, New Hampshire, write : " Women are employed in color- 
ing and finishing papers. The work is healthy, though all can- 
not use green. We pay some by the week and some by the day : 
$3 per week for day hands. It requires two or three months to 
learn. A light hand, quick motions, &c, are desirable qualifica- 
tions. The prospect of employment is the same as all other 
branches of manufacture. Warm weather is our most busy sea- 
son. The hands spend a few weeks in the country in midsum- 
mer. We employ from twenty to twenty-five women, and they 
work ten hours a day. They have the advantages of libraries, re- 
ligious services, &c, and pay for board $1.50 per week." A wall- 
paper manufacturer, in Boston, writes : " The different kinds of 
work and a fair knowledge of the manufacture of paper hangings 
must be seen to be appreciated. For one to be capable of taking 
charge of a manufactory in my line, he must devote many years 
pf close application, and must be a man of fine taste, in order to 



CHEMICALS. 389 

get up a taking style of goods, as the success of the business, in 
a great measure, depends upon that, coupled with a fine finish. 
The perfection of the manufacture may be all that could be de- 
sired, but if the arrangement of the shadings of the colors were 
faulty, there would be a very limited sale of them. A woman 
might perhaps make a color mixer (as we call them), if the work 
was not too hard and too dirty. We employ three girls to roll 
paper. It is light work, and they are paid from $2 to $4 per 
week — day hands, ten hours. The time to learn depends upon 
the capacity of the learner — say a month. The women are not 
out of employment long. The women are mostly foreign, and 
can make a comfortable living if they choose. Women have not 
sufficient strength for some parts of our work." 



CHEMICALS. 

398. Chemicals. One chemist wrote me that some part 
of the -work in the manufacture of chemicals is wet and disagree- 
able. Another writes that " women are not employed in that 
branch in this country, but may possibly be employed in England, 
Germany, and France ; but if at all, only to a small extent. The 
employment is not generally unhealthy. To learn it in all its de- 
tails, a pretty thorough knowledge of chemistry ought to be ac- 
quired. But a short time is required to learn the ordinary part 
of the business. The prospect of the employment of women is 
slight, but your inquiries have, however, suggested the idea and 
possibility of employing women to a small extent. Men in chem- 
ical works are employed at all seasons, and constantly for eleven 
hours per day. No particular locality has advantage over another, 
except its proximity to market. Uneducated persons, of ordinary 
intellect, can be employed to some extent in the labor." Another 
informant writes: a The manufacture of those chemicals most 
largely used in the arts, requires laborious work. It is, besides, 
rather severe on the clothes and hands, and is entirely unsuitable 
for women. There is, perhaps, room for the employment of 
women in the manufacture of the finer chemicals, but rather in 
the way of putting up than in the manufacture itself. We are 
not engaged in this branch. The demand for pure chemicals is 
so very limited, that only regularly educated chemists engage in 
the business, and they do most of the nice work themselves. 
There is nothing to hinder women from studying practical chem- 



390 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



istry, but there are few chances for educated chemists ; and there 
are more than men enough to take all the places that are to be 
filled." A manufacturer of acids writes : " We employ no female 
labor in our establishment, it being heavy work, not suitable for 
them." The present style of female dress would be inconvenient, 
if not dangerous, in the preparation of such chemicals as require 
the operator to be near the fire. This difficulty, however, could 
be obviated. 

399. Baking Powders. D. employs girls to put up 
baking powders, spices, &c. It is piecework. A very brisk 
hand can earn $5 a week, but few can do so. They work longest 
in summer days. They like to close early enough to give their 
girls time to get home before it is very late. Mechanical talent 
only is necessary. 

400. Bar and Soft Soap. Large quantities of soap are 
made in the United States. That sold in groceries is made mostly 
in towns or the country. It is hardened by muriate of soda, and 
called bar soap. That used by people in the country is generally 
of their own make, and called soft soap. In New York, we ob- 
served in some groceries barrels of soft soap of a very light color, 
almost white. Vegetable substances were used previous to the 
invention of soap, for washing the person and garments. A plant 
growing in California is said to yield a very good substitute. 
Some kinds of earth, mixed with lye ashes, have been used. 
Making soap in large quantities would be very heavy work for 
women. A machine has been invented for cutting soap into bars, 
which will doubtless in time do away with the primitive plan of 
cutting it with wires. At a soap factory, a man told us that 
women are never employed in factories in making coarse soap. 
Attending the kettles could not be well done by them. The 
only part that could be done would be cutting it in bars, but 
that is rather too hard, on account of the strain and change of po- 
sition. It is cut with wire after it has become hard. 

401. Blacking. In London, in 1852, there were, by May- 
hew's estimate, one hundred and fifty women and girls selling cake 
blacking. M., manufacturer, Philadelphia, occupies a four-story 
granite-fronted building. He employs about fifty women in 
making tin boxes, filling them with blacking in paste, and label- 
ling them. It requires but a few weeks for a smart girl to acquire 
dexterity. We saw the women at work in two large rooms (each 
being the whole floor of the house). They looked cheerful, though 
somewhat grimy. They work ten hours, and earn about $3 a 
week. The steady hands are kept in work the year round. The 
tin boxes pass, almost with the swiftness of thought, through eight 
hands, three of these operations being performed by steam ma- 



CANDLES. 391 

chinery, tended by women. The boxes are soldered by men, who 
receive $6 per week. It was once done by women, but is right 
warm work, particularly in summer. All stood while at work, ex- 
cept the women sorting bands. The premises had been rendered as 
healthy as possible. All the small pipes of the soldering stoves 
led into one large pipe, which carries off the fumes of the coal ; and 
a cylinder has been made to confine a white powder which is used 
in the business, and which formerly floated through the atmo- 
sphere of the workrooms.- The women are sometimes employed 
in bottling ink, and earn from $2 to $3 a week, working about 
the usual time — ten hours. 

402. Candles. Candles are made of different materials, 
of which wax, tallow, and spermaceti are most common. Some 
candle makers employ women to prepare the wax for candles. 
Candle manufacturers write us : " Women are never employed in 
our business, and we never heard of their being so employed. "We 
consider the work too heavy, and too cold. The principal part 
of the work is done in winter, and the manufacturing rooms must 
be kept cold. Women were at one time employed in cutting and 
preparing the wick for candles ; but since the introduction of ma- 
chinery, that part is dispensed with." A manufacturer writes 
from another city: " Men sometimes work all night, at the season 
when the nights are long. The only place, I think, where there 
can be a demand for female labor in my branch, is where there 
are no men." Another informant writes : " I think women could 
not be to any considerable extent employed in making soap and 
candles, for several reasons : 1st. It is for the most part a heavy 
business, requiring more than female strength. 2d. It is objec- 
tionable on account of the dirt, which is the result of coming in 
contact with tallow, &c." Another says : " Our plan for mould- 
ing is too heavy for women to work at." At an oil and candle 
manufactory, New York, I was told they used to employ some 
women in putting wicks into moulds, drawing candles, and pack- 
ing them. Machinery is so much used now, that women cannot 
do as much of it as they did. Besides, candles are not used so 
much as they were, owing to the introduction of gas and various 
oils. They paid their girls $4 a week. They now employ one 
woman in putting the wicks in moulds for wax candles, and draw- 
ing and packing them. J. employs two women in making sperm 
candles, but they have been at it twenty years. They each get 
$4 a week. M — s T New York, write : " We employ six women in 
making and packing candles. They are so employed in France 
. and England, and very likely in Germany. The work is not un- 
healthy. Our women are paid from $2.50 to $4 per week, of 
ten hours a day. They are generally paid by the week, though 



892 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

sometimes by the piece. Men's wages are from $9 to $12. We 
know of no reason why women are paid less, except that it is the 
general custom. It requires from two to three weeks to learn. 
Women are paid while learning. Dexterity of the hands is the 
best qualification for a worker. The occupation is gradually de- 
creasing. There is no material difference in the seasons for work. 
Women are sometimes thrown out of employment in the summer 
months. We employ women because they are more nimble fin- 
gered than men, and female labor is cheaper. Workwomen are 
more apt to get in trouble among themselves, where many are 
employed, and are more difficult to control. We have generally 
found them more careless and less uniform in their work than 
men; so much so, that their employment is constantly diminishing 
in our work, being replaced by machinery. We find them in no way 
superior to men, except their nimble fingers." We place against 
this the preliminary report to the United States Census of 1860, 
where one hundred and forty-two women are returned as being- 
employed in soap and candle manufactures. 

403. Chalk. I saw a man making prepared chalk. He 
sometimes employs small girls to put it in boxes, and pays from 
seventy-five cents to $2 per week. They work ten hours a day. 
There is nothing unhealthy in it. He thinks there are but few 
manufacturers of it, and consequently there is not much prospect 
for employment. 

404. Emery Paper. G. would be willing to employ 
girls to pack and tie up emery paper, paying $3.50 a week. It is 
dirty work, on account of the glue that is used, and is very severe 
on the fingers, causing the blood to flow often, and unfortunately 
does not harden the fingers by practice. 

405. Fancy Soaps. Some of the fancy soaps of Ameri- 
can manufacture are equal to any in the world. Those of Bazin, 
Philadelphia, are considered best. Those of Jules Hauel and Har- 
rison are nearly equal. There are other manufacturers of fancy 
soap in the United States. On Spruce street, Philadelphia, is a 
place where they employ girls to put up fancy soaps, and pay by the 
piece, from $2 to $5 per week. L., New York, employs girls by the 
week, for from $2 to 83.50. It requires practice to put up either 
soap or perfumery. They are most busy in spring and fall. None 
made South or West. L. has lost the custom of shop girls by the 
hard times. They have no money now to spend for fancy soap 
and hair oil. 

406. Fire Works. Two hundred and eleven females are 
reported in the census of Great Britain as being employed in mak- 
ing fire works. S. & Co., New York, employ ten or twelve women 
for pasting the paper covers on fire works, but not for filling with 



FLAVORING EXTRACTS. 393 

powder. All the work is done in daylight. They are paid 
something while learning, and then from S3 to $5 a week. For 
overwork, they are paid by the hour. Their factory is in Green- 
ville, N. J. There is one in Cincinnati, one in Boston, and one 
in Philadelphia. Girls sit while at work. The prospect for 
learners is good. S. & Co. are most busy in spring and summer 
but able to keep their hands employed all the year. They have 
a great many children employed on Long Island, in making 
torpedoes, who cannot earn more than SI. 50 a week. 

407. Flavoring Extracts. Manufacturers in Rochester 
write : " Yfe have -about twenty women engaged in putting up 
and packing perfumery, &e., and pay from $2 to S3 per week. 
A smart girl will learn in a week. Quickness of movement and 
steadiness of habit are the best qualifications. The prospect of 
work in this line is good. They are employed all the year, and 
work ten hours a day." C, of Boston, employs a number, " be- 
cause they can work cheaper than men. They are paid by the 
day or week, according to their experience. Good workers earn 
50 cents a day, of nine hours. To thoroughly understand the 
business requires a lifetime. Women's part of the work is learn- 
ed in six months. Women are paid while learning. All seasons 
are alike. The work is easy, and the pay good. Board, $1.50." 
H. C. & Co., of Boston say: " In compliance with your wishes, 
we give below answers to your inquiries. We manufacture per- 
fumery, cooking extracts, hair oils, &c. We employ females to 
bottle and label them. We pay by the amount of labor done, and 
the average earnings are about $4 per week. Why women are not 
generally better paid is a difficult question to answer. We think, 
however, the argument is good that they do not as a general 
thing have family expenses to bear. If they were taxed (are not 
those that own property ?) and also bore a proportionate share of 
family expenses, there is no good reason why they should not 
have the same pay for the same labor as males. (Have not the 
majority of workwomen some one dependent upon them, even with 
their scanty wages ?) The work may be learned in a few weeks. 
An aptness and tact to handle small bottles, to tie ribbons, and 
cut corks quickly, best fit one for this work. There is a constant 
demand for the kind of goods we manufacture. Our females 
work ten hours a day, and their employment is steady. The 
work is clean and comfortable ; the remuneration, we think, just. 
Women are superior to men, from being quicker in their move- 
ments and displaying better taste. Board, $2.50." Other 
manufacturers in Boston write : " We employ ten American 
women, because they do the work cheaper than men could. We 
pay by the piece. They earn $6 a week, and receive three fourths 
17* 



394 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

of the wages of men. They are paid $3 per week while learning. 
Women are inferior in business capacity, superior in details. 
Board, $3 per week." 

498. Glue. Glue is made from the parings of hides, and 
refuse leather. First they are put in alkaline water to be clean- 
ed, and then boiled in large vessels. The liquid is poured off 
from the gelatine which coats the vessel and forms in sheets. I 
think women might spread the substance on nets in drying rooms, 
and, when dry, cut it and pack it. It is cut by wires having 
handles, which are held in the hand, to assist in pressing the wire 
with more force across the glue. S. employs several girls, who 
earn from 83 to $6 per week. He pays by the gross. Most of 
the girls have been with him ever since he commenced manu- 
facturing, eight years ago. 

409. Gunpowder. The agent of the Hazard Gunpowder 
Company told me they employ at the manufacture as many of 
the widows and children of those killed by explosions as they 
can, in making linen covers for kegs, and putting gunpowder in 
envelopes, and cutting labels, and putting on them. D. writes 
to an acquaintance for us : cc We employ women at times in 
labelling canisters, and then only two." 

410. Oils. A manufacturer of machine oil says a lady 
that understands the business could give men orders, and keep 
the office, and so carry on the business ; but the work is too warm 
for women, and too laborious. It is certainly greasy work, and 
therefore hard on clothes. A manufacturer of oil writes me 
" he thinks the business not at all suitable for women : the only 
part that could be done by them is such as pertains to the office, 
which would be the same as that of other merchants." The 
manufacture of hair oils forms an extensive business. A manu- 
facturer of linseed oil told me he could employ a woman to 
remove the seed from the bags, after the oil has been pressed out, 
but it would be greasy work. Some oil manufacturers told me 
they would employ girls to put oil in bottles for sewing machines. 
They would also be willing to employ female agents to sell oil for 
sewing machines. If a lady could sell twelve bottles a day, at 25 
cents a bottle, she could make $1.75. 

411. Faints. Oil paint is so disagreeable to handle and 
put up in such large quantities that it is unsuitable work for 
women. An English workman in B. & L's factory told us that 
women are employed in the paint factories in London and Hull 
as extensively as men. What they do we could not exactly 
learn,' except that they put the powder for paint in cans, and 
label them. The man said the business is pernicious to the health. 
Ex-Mayor T. employed some women in his color factory at 



PATENT MEDICINES PERFUMERY. 395 

Manhattan ville to label. At O.'s, Philadelphia, a few women 
are employed in moulding the cakes of water paints, and stamp- 
ing them, and in tubing and packing fine oil paints. A paint manu- 
facturer in Brooklyn writes : " The only way we can employ 
females is at putting up paint dry in six-pound boxes or in cans. 
This last is ground in oil. We have generally employed boys 
for this purpose, but I think females would suit better, provided 
they were kept by themselves. If this could be done, we might 
be able to employ from four to five hands. The work is rather 
unhealthy, as it affects the lungs. We pay one woman $4 per 
week, working ten hours a day. It requires a week to learn. 
We do not work for four months in winter. Cleanliness and tact 
are necessary for putting up goods. Women would attend to 
their work better than boys.' 5 

412. Patent Medicines. Women are very extensively 
employed in putting up patent medicines. At H.'s, Philadelphia, 
where extract of ginger is made, they once employed women in 
the summer. They prefer boys and men, because in intervals 
men and boys can do other work that women cannot. Women 
were only employed by them to put up, seal, and label. Where 
H.'s bitters are made, women are employed to envelop, seal, 
and label, and paid according to the industry and skill of the 
workers. They receive from $3 to $4 a week. Dr. Ayres, I 
have been told, has his medicine put up by females in Canada, 
because he can have it done there more cheaply, although a duty 
of 15 per cent, is paid for importing. 

413. Pearlash. Women could make pearlash in the 
country, where large quantities of wood are burned in clearing 
off land, and would no doubt find it pay very well for the trouble. 

414. Perfumery. Perfumeries have been used in ori- 
ental countries from the most remote ages. The finest and most 
costly perfumes are still brought from the East. They were 
much used in England about the time of Queen Elizabeth. The 
essential oil of plants confers their odors. This oil may be ob- 
tained by expression, infusion, or distillation. In some cases, it 
may be pressed out of the cellular structure that contains it. 
Roses and such plants are mostly steeped in water, but some 
plants are steeped in wine and similar substances. There is a 
difference in oils obtained from different parts of the same plant ; 
for instance, the leaves, flowers, and fruit of the orange tree yield 
distinct oils. The perfumeries of France have the best reputa- 
tion of any others. Considerable perfumery is manufactured in 
this country, that meets with a ready sale at a good profit. At 
J. H.'s, Philadelphia, the woman who superintends others em- 
ployed in putting up perfumery, told me that the hands work 



396 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

three months before they are paid. They then receive from $1.50 
to $5 a week. It would require two years, she thinks, to acquire 
proficiency. J. H. finds employment for his hands all the year 
round. The girls cut kid for the tops, tie them on, label the 
bottles, lay them in cotton in small boxes, and then put them in 
large boxes ready for nailing and sending away. The girls each 
perform the entire process. It is not divided into separate 
branches. Sometimes they are employed in putting up fine soaps. 
The labels are all imported from France. They sit while employed, 
and spend from ten to twelve hours at it, according to the work 
on hand. R. says some perfumery is made by machinery and 
some by hand. Pie thinks a woman should spend from six months 
to one year learning to put up perfumery, as it must be done very 
neatly. He pays his girls, while learning, $2.50 a week, and after 
that according to ability and industry. The business is now dull, 
for people cannot afford to indulge in luxuries. At P.'s per- 
fumery manufactory, I learned that the girls work from 7£ to 6, 
and earn from $2 to $8 per week — the average, $3.50. They 
are mostly Americans. Spring and fall are the best seasons, but 
they keep them all the year. They have many applications, but 
are often puzzled to get enough of good hands. Girls do better 
than men for putting up perfumery. It requires some taste. Poor 
workers are very destructive, for the articles of which some per- 
fumeries are made are very costly. There are employed in pack- 
ing fancy soap and preparing perfumery, between six hundred 
and seven hundred girls, in New York ; average wages, $4. A 
manufacturer of hair oil pays his men from $10 to $15 per week. 
Good taste and a quick hand are the requisites. Near a city is 
the best location. At H.'s perfumery and fancy soap manufac- 
tory, one of the firm told me they " import " Frenchmen to make 
the perfumery, who impart to them the secret, and they furnish 
the materials. Their busy season commences in January. They 
pay their girls from the first, but not much until they get to 
working well. It requires some time to become expert and taste- 
ful in putting up perfumery. They are paid by the piece (cus- 
tomary plan), but do not work over ten hours, as it is all done at 
the factory. They can earn from $3 to $9 a week. They keep 
their hands all the year, but in busy times employ extra hands. 
They employ a number of girls in making boxes, who earn about 
$3 a week. P. & F. employ one woman, paying $3.50 a week. 
P. told me such work is usually paid for by the gross, and workers 
earn about $4.50. The business is likely to increase. No manu- 
factures West or South. It requires six months to become expert. 
Vacancies are often occurring among the hands. Some are em- 
ployed in label cutting some in filling bottles, corking, tying, 



QUININE — SALT. 397 

labelling, and boxing, while others envelop and seal the soap. 
They sit most of the time, but change their position every little 
while. There is but one establishment of the kind west of Phila- 
delphia, and that is in Cincinnati. 

415. Quinine. At P. & W.'s laboratory, Philadelphia, they 
employ a number of girls in weighing and putting up quinine, calo- 
mel, &c, to send away. The girls work eight hours in winter and 
nine in summer, and receive from $3 to $9 a week. The employ- 
ment is thought not to be healthy. It changes the fairest com- 
plexion to a sallow, just as the taking of the medicine would. 
The air of the room where we sat, and where the girls were cork- 
ing, sealing, enveloping, and labelling, was strongly impregnated 
with the quinine. It was so offensive that I could not rid myself 
of the taste for several hours after I left the room. In one apart- 
ment a man and woman were weighing the article. The woman 
wore a bandage over her mouth and a muslin cap on her head, and 
spectacles with large, dark, convex frames, to prevent the quinine 
from getting in her eyes, as it turns the white of the eye yellow. 
The women had each their own apartment of labor. They looked 
as healthy as you generally see, but I do not know how they may 
have looked when they commenced working there. The lady 
who accompanied me, said her friend had fallen off very much 
and lost the beauty of her complexion while working there dur- 
ing the last two years. 

416. Salt. " In certain cities, especially at Dieppe, France, 
women have the business of carrying salt ; it is a monopoly which 
has belonged to them from time immemorial. They form a corpora- 
tion, have a syndic, and salt in the sack cannot, in this city, be 
transported from the vessel to the depots or warehouses by any 
but them." According to the statistics of the salt manufacture 
in 1850, there were 2,699 males employed and 87 females 
in the United States. Water from the ocean, lakes, and 
salt springs, I suppose, could be boiled by women. A rock-salt 
manufacturer writes : " Women might do some of our work better 
than a man ; but one man can tend the hopper and tie as fast as 
another can fill. The best salt for dairy purposes is imported, and 
therefore a seaport is the best place for our business." A manu- 
facturer in Barnstable, Mass., writes : " Women are not employed 
in my branch of industry, as far as my knowledge extends, in 
making salt ; but, when it is ground for table use, women are 
sometimes employed in making the bags to put the salt in. They 
formerly made good wages in this business ; but, since sewing 
machines have come into almost general use, the price of labor 
has fallen, and I am not posted as to the price now paid, as most 
of the ground salt and the bags are manufactured in Boston. 



398 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Working with salt is very healthy. We manufacture our salt 
between the 1st of April and the last of October, by solar evapo- 
ration ; but very little if any salt can be made in this way after 
the latter month, as the sun runs too low for salt making. Our 
works are provided with covers, which require too hard labor for 
women to shove on as rain approaches, and to be opened every 
fair day. Women can, and occasionally do lend a hand in this 
business ; but it is too laborious. Then, the salt has to be taken 
out by men with shovels, and this is too hard labor for women. 
They might assist in drawing the water from one room to another, 
by simply taking out and putting in plugs ; but under a hot sum- 
mer's sun, we think our business entirely unsuitable for them. 
In the winter, we manufacture epsom salts ; but even this work 
we consider too laborious for women." A salt manufacturer in 
South Yarmouth, Maine, writes : " I believe women are employed 
in the mills in Boston for grinding salt, in making the bags, putting 
it up, &c, for table use. Otherwise, the service is too hard." 
Manufacturers in Syracuse, N. Y., say "they have but a limited 
number of women employed in making sacks. The most of their 
sacks are furnished by the manufacturing establishments." Salt 
clarifiers in Burlington, Vt., write : " We employ one woman, 
because it is cheaper to do so. We pay her $4 per week — a man 
we would have to pay $6. The work is healthy, and women's 
part soon learned. Spring and summer are the best seasons. 
The prospect for work in this line is good. Board, $1.70 per 
week." A gentleman in the salt business at Geddes, N. Y., 
writes : " There used to be employed far more women than now 
in making bags to hold dairy or bag salt. Now, sewing machines 
have entirely superseded them in this branch of our business. 
During the summer season, formerly, there were from one hun- 
dred to three hundred women at bag making. There are now, 
say one hundred or more women engaged in packing and filling 
the barrels with salt. They are all foreigners. It is dirty, heavy, 
and laborious work, and not suitable for women, but is extremely 
healthy. No difference is made in the price paid men and women, 
all being paid by the piece, and earning from 75 cents to $1 per 
day. A strong woman can learn very soon. The amount of 
work, probably, will not change much in future. The work is 
done only in the summer season. A large proportion of all the 
salt made in this country is made here. The annual product of 
our salt springs is about seven million bushels salt, produced at 
an expense for labor of not less than ten cents per bushel. Nearly 
all is paid to men, Irish and Dutch getting the most of it. A 
very small part of the work, if any, is adapted to women. Most 
of our women workers are the wives or mothers of men and boys 



SODA STARCH. 399 

who fasten hoops on barrels. Most of the salt at Syracuse, N. Y., 
is made by boiling down the water that springs from artesian 
wells. At Turk's Island, salt is made by simply digging vats in 
the meadow and throwing the water into them. As it rarely 
rains there for a number of months, they require no covering to 
their works, and have only to take out the salt and stack it up 
when it is made." 

417. Soda. I find that in factories of this kind, girls are 
not employed in this country, except for putting the article in 
papers. They are paid from twelve to sixteen cents per hundred, 
according to the size. At a factory I saw many at work. They 
looked very neat. All wore clean calico dresses, and snow-white 
handkerchiefs over their heads, to prevent the soda from lodging 
in their hair. They must inhale considerable of it, as the atmo- 
sphere was strongly impregnated. One of the workers told me 
they are paid eighteen cents per hundred packages, which were 
rather large. A box contained sixty packages. Some are able 
to put up as many as seven hundred packages a day. The pro- 
prietor and one of the girls said it was not unhealthy work ; but 
it is my impression that it is, if .worked at constantly. It re- 
quires but a week to get in the way of doing it, and expertness 
is gained by practice. They work all the year, but sometimes 
there is not much to do. They are most busy in spring and fall. 
Some of the hands live near ; so, in slack times, if the proprietor 
receives an order to be filled, he sends immediately for his girls. 
At another factory, I was told September and October are the 
most busy months for their hands. They cannot send much 
away in winter, because the rivers are closed and railroad freight 
is high. Soda, I was told, is more used in the South than sal- 
eratus. Some of their girls are paid by the week, and some by the 
box. They earn from $3 to §4. The gentleman said the dust 
was disagreeable, but not unhealthy. Their girls stand while at 
work. 

418. Starch. A large number of plants and vegetable 
substances contain starch. Wheat, potatoes, rice, and maize are 
the principal. It is also found in the seeds and stems of plants. 
It is not soluble in cold water, consequently may be easily washed 
out of any vegetable substance. For those from which it cannot 
be so removed chemical decomposition may be employed. Manufac- 
turers write us : " The making of starch is hard and unsuitable 
work for females ; but girls are employed to put up the starch in 
papers and label it, receiving from thirty-seven to seventy-five 
cents a day, according to what the worker accomplishes." The 
following intelligence we received from the Oswego factory : " We 
employ from fifteen to twenty women, because we find them more 



400 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

attentive than boys. They paste labels on packages of starch, 
and receive thirty-seven and a half cents per day, of from eight 
to ten hours. A smart girl can learn in a few hours. The pros- 
pect of employment in future is good. They are paid the same 
that boys would be, and have work the year round. There are 
no parts suitable for women, in which they are not engaged. 
Board, $1.25 to $1.50." 

419. White Lead. At the store of a white lead manu- 
facturer, I was told they employ a number of girls, when busy, to 
label the tin cans. The making of white lead is unhealthy, and, 
I suppose, very disagreeble work. Women are employed in Eng- 
land in the manufacture of white lead. 

420. Whiting. This article is used for cleaning silver, 
and one preparation of it for the face. There are not more than 
from twelve to twenty women at the work in the United States. 
B. used to employ women, and paid by the pound. The women 
earned about $3 a week, of ten hours. They were employed 
merely in putting up the article. 



COMMUNICATING MEDIUMS BETWEEN EM- 
PLOYERS AND OTHERS. 

421. Assistants in Public and Benevolent In- 
stitutions. There is a wide field of usefulness open to ladies, 
as matrons in charitable institutions. Blessed is the influence a 
woman exerts as a matron, if she is a kind, good woman. Her 
responsibilities are great, but a consciousness of the vast amount 
of good she may accomplish should reconcile her to them. The 
discharge of her duties will often cast her in the society of visi- 
tors, many of whom are refined and educated people. In reform- 
atory institutions for children, a matron may do incalculable 
good. The female department of almshouses, lunatic asylums, 
hospitals, prisons, workhouses, and all other public and chari- 
table institutions, should be in the hands of women. They can 
exert a better influence. They know better the wants of their 
sister women. They can enter into their feelings. They can 
check familiarities with the male inmates, and exert more in- 
fluence when temptation is offered. In short, they are women, and 
know a woman's heart. Orphan, and deaf and dumb asylums, 
houses of refuge, eye and ear infirmaries, schools for imbecile 



ASSISTANTS IN INSTITUTIONS. 401 

children, and all such places, should be managed by women, as 
far as practicable. The managers of the home department of 
such institutions should be firm and efficient, yet kind hearted. 
Nor should merely the filling of these offices be given to women, 
but there should be a number of lady visitors to cooperate 
with the managers. They can often suggest many improvements 
for the comfort and health of the inmates, that would escape the 
notice of men. I was told by a friend, now deceased, who took 
an active part in establishing and advancing benevolent institu- 
tions, that she found it very difficult to obtain matrons, seam- 
stresses, and tailoresses, willing and competent to instruct the in- 
mates of the institutions in their various branches of labor. She 
thought it would be well to instruct women so thoroughly in 
their business that they might efficiently impart a knowledge of 
it to others. She thought there should be a house where women 
and girls could be properly prepared to perform the duties of 
cooks, nurses, and house servants. A lady friend suggested that 
many of the situations in the public institutions of New York 
might be filled by some of the women who are now keeping board- 
ing houses, and so, the pressure in that quarter being removed, 
there would be fairer and fuller play to those that are left in the 
occupation. A principal reason of the order and cleanliness of 
the workhouses in Holland, is the attention and humanity of the 
governesses ; for each house has four, who take charge of the in- 
spection, and have their names painted in the room. For the 
moral management of convicts, men are systematically trained in 
some countries of Europe. In the hospitals, prisons, and reforma- 
tory institutions of England, supported by the government, women 
are employed. They are even eligible as overseers of the poor. 
The President of the Board of Public Institutions in New York 
city furnished me with answers to questions in regard to the 
women employed therein, as follows : " Women are employed as 
matrons, nurses, and laborers in this city, and on Biackwell's and 
Randall's islands. They receive from $5 per month to $430 per 
annum, and are paid by the month. The labor performed, properly 
belongs to women, although we employ some men for part of the 
same labor, but their pay is about the same. There is no need 
of an apprenticeship to become familiar with their employments, 
and the only special qualifications are health and strength. There 
is no difference as to seasons with us. They work only as many 
hours as are necessary. The demand for those occupying this 
position grows out of the number of the destitute and criminal 
thrown on our hands. About twenty-five per cent, employed are 
Americans. We employ women in all work for which they are 
suited. The more intelligent are selected for the most responsi- 



402 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



ble positions. If so disposed, they have ample time for mental 
and moral culture. They live where they labor, and their places 
of residence are comfortable." Each of the janitresses of the 
public schools of New York receives a salary of from $100 to $400 
per annum. At the Tombs of New York, a woman has charge 
of the department where the female convicts are. At a meeting 
of ladies in Dublin, for the employment of women, Mr. McFar- 
lane said that " for the last twenty-five years, the Grangegorman 
Penitentiary had been under the management of a lady, and it 
had been most admirably conducted." 

422. Commissioners of Deeds. There are about two 
hundred in the city of New York, and, with a moderate run of 
custom, each can make several hundred dollars per annum. Their 
duties are very light, and, I have been told, could as well be per- 
formed by women as men. 

423. Housekeepers. A kind, yet decided manner, will 
more effectually govern a household than fretting and scolding. 
A portion of time should be regularly set aside for servants to 
feel as their own. It will often prove a matter of economy to 
those who exact work of them. Those of principle will work 
more diligently. Everybody needs some rest. Gain the good 
will and confidence of servants, and they will reward you in the 
labor of their stronger muscles. But avoid familiarity, by all 
means. Much of the long, wearing toil of servants might be 
avoided by consideration and management on the part of a house- 
keeper. Domestics labor hard, and much of the comfort of a 
family depends on them. Do not accuse on suspicion those in 
your employ of doing or having done wrong. Be careful of the 
reputation of others, particularly dependent females. A man of 
standing, to whom I expressed the desire that more occupations 
should be opened to women, expressed the wish that our domestics 
should be Americans, and of a more intelligent class. An effort 
should be made to elevate the standard of servants, he said, to 
induce more respectable and intelligent women to enter domestic 
service. Those engaged in it, he thought, should find something 
else to do, and will be pushed out as a more competent class enter. 
I would prefer to see our present class of servants fit themselves 
better for the discharge of their duties, and American girls enter 
occupations of a more refined and exalted nature. The same gen- 
tleman referred to, stated that his servants each receive $2 a week, 
dress handsomely, and lay by money. (?) They do better for 
themselves, he remarked, than the girls in his bookbindery. In 
some of the convents of France, the sisters go through a course 
of training to prepare them for the duties of housekeepers, and 
are then sent to take charge of religious and charitable institu- 



KEEPEKS OF INTELLIGENCE OFFICES. 403 

tions connected with their church. Why might not some such 
plan be pursued by Protestants ? Says an English review: " In 
Germany, the employment of women in the offices of house- 
steward, maitre d'hotel, butler or lackey, sanctioned by universal 
custom, is not considered so incompatible as it would be with us, 
with the other branches of a first-rate establishment." 

424. Keepers of Intelligence Offices. Intelli- 
gence offices are established for the purpose of giving information 
to or respecting persons seeking employment. They are individ- 
ual enterprises. From fifty cents to $1 is paid by an applicant 
for information of persons desiring one of such capacity as they 
seek to fill. The same price is paid by the person seeking an as- 
sistant or domestic. Most offices are limited to supplying domes- 
tics ; but one or more might be established for the supply of 
seamstresses, saleswomen, milliners, dress makers, &c. Girls often 
find it an advantage to apply at an office, if they have not friends 
to interest themselves and secure them situations. But they 
should be particular to know the character of the office they 
patronize. A lady remarked to me, if a girl was willing to 
spend a year in a family where she could be well instructed 
for her work, she could then be sure of a good home and fair 
wages. Servant girls are universally complained of at the North. 
Many of them are very exacting. Most are raw Irish girls, who 
think, when they come to this country, everybody is equal. Con- 
sequently, they do not know their places as they do in the old 
country, where there are distinct grades in society. Another thing 
that makes some so trifling is that such swarms come, and they 
are so ignorant, and many of them so corrupt, that they instigate 
each other. I was told, by the keeper of an intelligence office, 
that girls and women always ask more than they expect to get. 
Some cooks get as high as $20 a month. They are mostly French 
and German. Now and then he has a good American. He has 
a lady in attendance that can speak French and German. His 
terms are fifty cents a month from the employer, and the same 
from the employee. It gives the privileges of the office for one 
or two months. Few are willing to go to the country. Many 
girls come from the country that do not know where to board. 
The keeper of the office seads them to a cheap but respectable 
house. His office is open from eight to five. To employers be 
sends a blank certificate of character, to be filled when the ser- 
vant leaves. There is a Protestant office in Philadelphia, and 
one or more in New York. At an intelligence office on Grand 
street, where girls pay fifty cents and the employer fifty cents, the 
girl has the privilege of being supplied with places for two months, 
if she remains on trial the time specified by agreement with her 



iO± THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

various employers. If not, she forfeits the privilege. This office 
had a servants' home connected with it, that is, a boarding house 
for servants out of employ. The girls paid $2 a week. A train- 
ing school was connected with this, in which the servants received 
instructions in cooking and the various details of housekeeping. 
The cooking of the boarding house was done by some of the num- 
ber. He failed in his enterprise, he said, from want of capital. 
One has been in operation in England for eight years very suc- 
cessfully, connected with which is a training school. They have 
few Americans to apply for places ; for Americans like lighter 
work, as nursing, sewing, being lady's maid, &c. In summer 
there is a scarcity of girls, for they go to the country and water- 
ing places to cook and do housework. In the fall they flock to 
the city, and there are more applicants than situations. At some 
offices the privilege is accorded for three months, and at some 
only one month. A lady who keeps an office in Williamsburg 
told me, when the girls come to her, she takes their names and 
qualifications. She receives the calls of ladies wanting girls, and 
also records their wants. After five o'clock, and on Saturday 
after two o'clock, the office is closed, and she then compares the 
wants of employers and employees, and makes out a correspond- 
ing list. Next day she sends girls to their places. I could have 
got a lady's maid for $5 a month with board and lodging. I saw 
a lady securing a nurse for her child at the same price. Fifty 
cents is the fee for the privilege of her office for three months. 
She furnishes girls during that time until the mistress is satisfied ; 
and the girl pays the same, and is furnished with places for three 
months until she is satisfied. She does not require references 
from her girls, but sends the lady to the last employer of the 
girl. I called at Mrs. Y.'s office, New York. Girls, she says, 
get different prices in different States. In wealthy States, as 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Southern States, they get 
good prices. In Cincinnati, and the States of Wisconsin and 
New Jersey, poor prices. She sends many from the city to every 
part of the United States. People write to her, inclosing the 
money for the girl's passage. She then buys her a ticket and 
provisions, and sends her on ; but the arrangement is always for 
a year or six months, as people are not willing to incur the ex- 
pense of paying the passage of a girl for less time. She could 
get many more places for girls, if they would go to the country ; 
but they do not wish to go, and, if dissatisfied, be at the expense 
of returning. The girl may be deceived, by finding there are 
twice as many in the family as represented, or the work is much 
harder. Mrs. Y. learns the character of a girl that applies to 
her, and then registers it in her book. So ladies applying for a 



LIGHTHOUSE KEEPEES. 405 

girl have from her the true character. She has no difficulty in 
finding places for her girls. She is always busy but on a rainy 
day. People object to having an intelligence office near them, as 
the girls are inclined to stand about the door. It is said that the 
majority of the keepers of intelligence offices furnish the best 
places to those by whom they are bribed. A few years ago, the 
number of white female servants in New York city was estimated 
at 100,000, that of Boston 50,000, Philadelphia 30,000, and Bal- 
timore 20,000. There is a lady in Boston who goes around 
among her friends and secures to them good domestics, receiving 
some compensation for her services — I think, fifty cents a domes- 
tic. When the influence of servants over children is considered, 
I think parents cannot be too careful in the selection of their 
servants ; and to obtain good ones, they should be willing to 
pay a fair price. There is a waste of time to girls sitting in 
offices, and a risk run of being sent, by a person of whose moral 
character they know nothing, to a house that may prove the 
wreck of their virtue. At a boarding house and intelligence 
office for workwomen, the lady told me they charge $2 a week for 
board, allowing the privilege of the wash room, and of sitting in 
the parlor in the evening, which is warmed and contains a piano. 
To those who cannot pay as much as this, they charge from $1 to . 
$1.25, giving them rooms in the attic. They have been applied, 
to often for persons of a higher class than usually frequent intel- 
ligence offices, but only until since the times have been so hard 
have they had such applicants. I was told, at another office, they 
seldom have American girls apply for places, except as house 
girls, and they are mostly girls who have worked in factories. 
They send girls to California and all parts of the United States, 
and they have some who travel through Europe in the capacity 
of ladies' maids. Their office is open from nine to five o'clock. 
When a girl is sent for from another place, the money is sent by 
express and a receipt taken, or by mail, and a receipt taken at 
the post office. One of a high order for cultivated women, who 
desire places as bookkeepers, copyists, secretaries, &c, is quite 
necessary. We would suggest the establishment of such an office 
for furnishing female workers to different parts of the United 
States, where they are wanted in the higher branches of woman's 
labor. It would confer a blessing on virtuous and industrious 
women, and be an accommodation to employers. A paper devo- 
ted to the same interests might do much good also ; but we think 
it doubtful whether it would pay its way. 

425. Lighthouse Keepers. Miss H. told me of two 
young women whose father keeps a lighthouse, but he is very 
feeble and infirm. They attend the lights, and often row out, if 



406 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

they see a wreck, and do what they can to rescue the passengers. 
We observed this newspaper paragraph a few years back : " A 
Mrs. Lydia Smith has been appointed assistant keeper of the 
lighthouse at Manitou Island (Michigan) at $250 per annum." 
" They have a Grace Darling at Bridgeport, Conn. On the night 
of the 13th inst., Miss Moore, an accomplished young lady, the 
daughter of the keeper of the lighthouse on Fairweather Island, just 
below Bridgeport, heard cries for help at a distance from the 
shore, and determined that an effort should be made to rescue 
whom it might be. It was too dark to tell the direction or the 
distance, but, summoning two young men to her aid, she launched 
the boat belonging to the lighthouse, and ordered them to pull 
out in the direction of the cries, herself holding the tiller. About 
two miles out in the Sound, they found a sailboat capsized, and 
clinging to it were two men nearly exhausted. One of them was 
entirely helpless, and with great difficulty got in the boat ; but 
both were finally rescued from death by the courage and efforts 
of this brave girl, and brought safely to shore. Mr. Moore, the 
keeper of the lighthouse, has been for some time afflicted with 
ill health, and when unable to see to the details of his office, this 
daughter assumes the entire management, and, through the lonely 
watches of the night, it is her fair hand that trims and tends the 
beacon that guides the mariner safely on his way." 

426. Pawnbrokers. I suppose this business requires a 
general knowledge of the value of goods. Some pawnbrokers 
profess to make liberal advances, but a very heavy percentage is 
usually charged. Indeed, some pawnbrokers extort an incredible 
interest on money loaned to the poor. S., an intelligent Irish 
pawnbroker, into whose office I went to ask something of the 
business, told me he never knew of but one woman in the business. 
She was nominally a widow, and employed a young man to stay 
in the shop. When women are employed in pawnbrokers' estab- 
lishments, it is nearly always as auxiliaries, being the wife, sister, 
or daughter of the keeper. He thinks it not a suitable business 
for a woman, as the class of people that come require a strong 
man to deal with them, who can use their slang language, and 
drive them away if they become very rude. No doubt, many go 
to pawn what they have when under the influence of liquor, or 
to pawn their clothes to get liquor. The broker retains what is 
pawned for a year, if it is not redeemed in less time. It is then 
sold at auction. There is a law that permits it. His shelves 
were filled with bundles, on which were pinned numbered papers. 
Another pawnbroker told me that the fashion and quality of 
goods decide the price put on them, particularly wearing apparel. 
There may be a difference in the value estimation of pawnbrokers, 



POSTMISTRESSES. 40 7 

just as there is in different establishments where the same kind 
of new goods are sold. I saw the name of a female pawnbroker 
in a business directory, and called. I did not see her, but the 
young man who was employed to assist her in attending the store 
said they have most business to do in summer, and that it is a 
business requiring experience. They pay on articles taken to 
them what they will be likely to sell for at auction. They must 
make some allowance for what they may lose on the article. 
They charge at the rate of twenty-five per cent, for a year's time, 
which is as long as anything pawned is kept. They lose more 
on clothes than other goods. They allow a depositor to draw any 
sum of less amount than the estimated value of an article ; and 
when the article is redeemed, a percentage is paid on the 
amount of the money drawn, and not on the full value of the 
article. 

427. Postmistresses. There are (1854) 128 postmis- 
tresses in the United States. They receive the same salaries 
that postmasters do. The clerks in post offices sometimes count 
at the rate of sixty letters a minute. There are 29,000 post 
offices in the United States, ninety clerks in Chicago, and, I 
think, nearly three hundred in New York. Might not a large 
number of these be women ? I have read that it is in contem- 
plation to place in the general post office in London a number of 
lady clerks. I called on Mrs. W., who was for nearly two years 
at the ladies' window in the general post office, New York. Very 
few approved of a lady being there. She found some advantages, 
but many disadvantages, arising from her position. In the first 
place, it yielded her and her child a support, the salary being 
$600. She was treated with respect by all the attaches of the 
office except two — one of whom was immediately dismissed, and 
the other removed. But the class of women who go to the 
general post office constantly for letters, are of a kind a respect- 
able woman would not like to come in contact with. The major- 
ity receive letters under fictitious names. Some of them were 
very impudent to her. And sometimes men would come to the 
window and insist on her getting the letters of their lady friends 
for them. Besides, there were about fifty clerks immediately 
around her, and altogether in the office between two hundred and 
three hundred. They were men of all classes and nations. The 
office is one influenced by political motives, and a man has the 
advantage as candidate by gaining the votes of his friends. She 
says she was kind and courteous, but found it necessary to be 
very decided, and keep at a distance from every one. The men 
in the office did not like it, because they had to guard their 
tongues. She remained there from 8.30 a. m. to 4.30 p. m., and 



408 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN". 

was on her feet all the time, with the exception of a few minutes. 
There were no conveniences or comforts for a woman. So she 
suffered severely from the effects. She thinks the plan of em- 
ploying ladies in the post offices of towns and villages might be 
done more easily. Even here it might be done more advanta- 
geously, if the office was situated farther up street, the regulations 
were different, and a number of ladies were employed instead of 
but one. A lady could not well use a ladder to reach down letters 
from the upper boxes. A young man did that for her. For a 
postmistress we might enumerate the qualifications of quickness 
of eye, strict integrity, a retentive memory, and patient industry. 
u Unmarried females only can hold the office of postmistress. 
They are appointed, give bonds, and are commissioned in the 
same manner as postmasters, and receive the same compensation. 
There is, however, a larger number of females, generally the wives 
and daughters of postmasters, employed as assistants ; but as the 
latter are appointed and paid by the postmasters themselves, to 
whom alone they are responsible, their names are not recorded on 
the government books." 

428. Sewing-Machine Instructors. In many of 
the stores of New York, where sewing machines are sold, we 
notice that many of those who give instructions to buyers of ma- 
chines are men. Shame on the men that teach women to sew ! 
When such is the case, to what may not a woman resort for earning 
a livelihood ? Shame on the man that engages in such an effemi- 
nate employment, save he who is deformed and cannot engage in 
harder work ! Shame, I say, on the man seen at a sewing machine, 
or with a needle in his hand ! Surely the muscles and bones and 
sinews of men were never given for such a purpose. W. & W. 
employ five young ladies as instructors on machines, paying each 
of them over $6 a week. They have one to sell thread, and two 
to go about the city adjusting machines. It is something difficult 
to do, as it requires almost the mechanical talent of a machinist. 
They have no applications for instructors on sewing machines 
out of the city, but have for some in the city. They employ 
females because the purchasers of machines are generally ladies. 
Gr. & B. employ a lady for adjusting machines, as they find 
ladies prefer one of their own sex for the purpose. I was told at 
S.'s, by the bookkeeper, they do not employ female instructors. 
They used to employ both young men and young ladies, but they 
spent so much time talking to each other, that they found it ne- 
cessary to dispense with either the one or the other. So they 
gave up the girls eighteen months ago, and have not employed 
any since. They paid girls $4 a week from the time they took 
them, and increased their wages to $5 or $6. Many of the women 



BATHHOUSE ATTENDANTS. 409 

earned 86. They worked, on an average, ten hours a clay. Ladies 
are employed in Boston to sell machines. The ladies of iSTew 
York (said a young man selling machines) prefer to buy of a 
gentleman. (?) Yet, he thinks the crying sin of civilisation is, not 
furnishing remunerative employment to women. Simply learning 
to sew with a machine is by no means difficult, though the time 
required depends very much upon the abilities of the learner. 
Some become proficient in all its accomplishments of hemming, 
tucking, gathering, preparing work for the machine, &c, in from 
three to six months, while others do not become efficient workers in 
less than a year. The time required to learn depends very much 
on the machine used, as some are more complicated than others ; 
and a thorough knowledge of the machine is desirable for every 
good worker. It is more difficult to learn to operate on one kind 
of machine after learning on some other kind. By paying $1.50, 
a person can receive six lessons on sewing machines at S.'s. At 
W. & W.'s, and at Gr. & B.'s, purchasers and those who cannot 
pay are taught free of charge. Some people charge $3 for teach- 
ing to operate. L. & W. will teach any one to operate who buys 
a machine, but they charge others $2. 

429. Shepherdesses. Boys who keep sheep in Scotland, 
knit while so employed. Girls and women who tend sheep, might 
perhaps do the same. Sheep are being raised to considerable 
extent in Texas, and the raising of them is on the increase in the 
Western States, but we do not know that females have ever been 
employed in this country to tend sheep. 

430. Toll Collectors. It is not unusual to see women 
receiving toll at the gates, but they are mostly foreigners, or poor 
widows, or the wives of the gatekeepers, 



CONTEIBTJTOBS TO THE COMFOET OE AMUSE- 
MENT OF OTHEES. 

431. Bathhouse Attendants. There are some people 
that cannot afford to have bathhouses in their dwellings, and for 
such it is well there are houses where, for twenty-five cents, they 
may enjoy the luxury of a bath. Particularly is it well for hard- 
working people, on whom the dust and perspiration collect, and 
who are refreshed and rendered more healthy by frequent baths. 
Where a bathhouse is used for women alone — there being no de- 
partment for men — we think it might be owned and superintend- 
ed by a lady, just like any other branch of business. Females, 
18 



410 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

of course, would be in attendance to wait on those that frequent 
the bath rooms. Quite a number are employed at water-cure 
establishments, which are open for patients at all seasons of the 
year. Not only does cleanliness promote comfort, but it is con- 
ducive to health. Many of the diseases of the poor arise from a 
want of cleanliness. Even the morals are improved, and the mind 
freed as it were from its cobwebs. Most medicinal baths should 
be superintended by some one that has a knowledge of medicine 
and the human system. And those employed, if unacquainted 
with the business, should be particular in observing directions 
given. For baths, a person should have means to fit up rooms 
neatly, and enough to live on until their establishment becomes 
known. I called on the wife of a gentleman who has electro- 
magnetic baths administered. He is a physician, and gives medi- 
cal advice as to the kind of bath required. He does not give 
much medicine, thinking the article that would be prescribed had 
better be administered externally in the form of a bath. The 
baths are $3 for a single one ; $10 for four. More people take 
the baths in summer than winter. After a vapor bath the system 
is stimulated, not relaxed ; it is then better prepared for the recep- 
tion of medicine. The charge at one establisment I know to be 50 
cents a bath, or §5 for twelve. In New York, I saw the People's 
Washing and Bathing Establishment, which was put up by some 
philanthropic citizens, for the benefit of the poor. A man is em- 
ployed to take charge of it; and in summer, several women attend 
to bathers, and some wash and iron towels. They pay $3 a week 
to a bath attendant, and from 83 to $3.50 to washers and ironers. 
They have had 1,500 bathers a day, in summer. For a bath in a 
small room and one towel, six cents are charged ; for better ac- 
commodations, twelve cents. A swimming bath for boys is at- 
tached, and a charge made of three cents a swim of half an hour. 
432. Brace and Truss Makers, I went to M. & Co.\s, 
New York, who are surgical and anatomical mechanicians, in- 
ventors, and manufacturers. They want to employ several good 
female workers. They will not take any to learn, because it 
requires time to teach them ; yet a person of moderate abilities, 
that can sew neatly, can learn in a few days, or weeks at most, to 
do the cutting out and stitching. Part of the stitching is done by 
hand, and part by machinery. The workwomen are paid $3 a 
week, and work ten hours. At L.'s truss and bandage institute, 
I learned that he employs a number at $3 a week. He cannot 
get as many good hands as he wants. He drew several hands 
from his former employer by paying them a little more. His 
wife does the fitting for ladies. A truss maker in Middletown, 
Conn., pays his women by the piece, and they earn from $3 to $4 



CHIROPODISTS. 411 

per week A., "Brooklyn, pays a girl that sews neatly, but has 
never worked at the business, $3 a week. Any one that can sew 
well or operate on a machine, can do the mechanical work. 
He pays experienced hands over S3, according to what they do. 
His girls work but nine hours a day. Manufacturers of surgical 
apparatus in Boston write : " We employ women in sewing ex- 
clusively, generally about twenty, and all American. The work 
is not more unhealthy than any sewing. We consider any steady 
sewing, and the consequent confinement, more or less injurious. 
Average wages, perhaps $4 per week — something depends upon 
capabilities, however. Some have earned $6 per week, though 
such cases are exceptions. All our work is done by the piece. 
Females are paid about half the price of males. There appears 
to be an ample supply of female labor. On this basis, prices, 
details, &c, are governed accordingly. That portion of the work 
done by males, it takes three years to learn ; that done by women, 
three months, presuming they were good sewers at the start. 
Learners are paid the same as old hands. Of course, they are 
slower, and accumulate less until well learned. To be a neat 
sewer and possess some mechanical skill will prepare one for this 
employment. We are seldom idle more than two weeks in the 
year. The male portion of our work would be no more adapted 
to women than horse shoeing. Our hands work from eight to 
twelve hours each day, and have none too much time for the im- 
provement of their minds, considering they must be occupied 
more or less upon their own private sewing in addition to their 
business." A truss maker in Boston writes: "I pay by the 
week, from $4 to $6 to women; to men, from $7 to $12, because 
they can do more. They work from nine to ten hours. All are 
Americans. It requires from three to six months to learn. 
Some portions of the steel work would not be suitable for women. 
Board, $2 per week." " W. & F. employ eight women for 
making braces, bandages, &c. They pay $3 a week to those 
who are employed by the week. Those that work by the piece can 
earn from $4 to $6, and sometimes by overwork $7 a week. 
Their work is steady in good times, and they are able to employ 
their girls all the year. All sew by hand but one, and she re- 
ceives but $4 as an operator. The business is mostly confined to 
cities. 5 ' 

433. Chiropodists. W., of the firm of L. & W., was 
quite a gentlemanly man in his manners, conversation, and dress. 
He mentioned three women, each in different cities, engaged in 
this occupation. He thinks his pursuit preferable to dentistry. 
Both depend on the class of patients. To follow the calling 
professionally requires a knowledge of anatomy and surgery. 



412 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

There is a great deal of charlatanism practised "by some in the 
calling. A knowledge of how to extract corns is not sufficient. 
Bunions, inverted nails, &c, require scientific treatment. He 
charges $1 for removing one corn, fifty cents apiece for two, and 
proportionately less for three or more. There are a great many 
itinerant doctors. If any individual fits himself properly for the 
calling, he may, after three or four years, in a large city, living 
from hand to mouth during the time, succeed in establishing a 
name and gaining respectable practice. The number of ladies 
suffering from corns has not decreased, judging from his experi- 
ence. Men are more liable to have corns than women, because 
of more severe and constant exercise. He thinks it would not 
do for women to work at men's feet. I think it would not be 
more agreeable to a woman to have a man work at her feet ; and 
as far as propriety goes, one is no better than the other. He 
would discourage any lady friend of his from undertaking the 
business. I called on Mine. K., a French lady. Her father 
is a chiropodist in Paris, and what she knows of the business she 
learned from seeing him. She found it unpleasant at first, but 
now she does not mind it. She goes to the house of the patient 
for the same price as she operates at her own room, namely, fifty 
cents a corn. She has as much to do as she wants. She thinks, 
in other places there are openings, and a woman that thoroughly 
understands the business is in every way as fit and capable as a 
man. She knows of but one other lady in the business in this 
country, and she is quite aged. She thinks, by three months' 
study and practice with a skilful operator, one might do very well 
to commence for herself. She would as soon operate on a 
gentleman's as a lady's foot. It might be well for one commen- 
cing to practice to travel, or get custom in several towns and 
villages in the same vicinity. I think she would instruct any 
one for a satisfactory compensation. A chiropodist says, as long 
as people are fools enough to abuse their feet, the prospect for his 
employment is good. L. is the oldest practitioner in the United 
States, and has practised in New York for twenty years. He 
would be willing to instruct pupils, charging $100 for each 
student. He would give thorough and systematic instruction, 
and teach to make the material used. People have not had 
much confidence in ladies, because of their deficiency in surgical 
skill. Incompetent persons have injured the business. Times 
do not affect the amount of practice. There are openings in 
Boston, Baltimore, and Chicago. Many ladies come to L. to 
have their finger nails trimmed, polished, and tinted. They 
would no doubt be as willing to have a competent lady. 



FISHING-TACKLE PREPARERS. 413 

434. Cuppers and Leechers. This business is some- 
times connected with that of a barber. But in cities, some women 
engage in it, and, no doubt, are as competent as men. Indeed, 
for their own sex and children they are better fitted. Mrs. A., 
a cupper and leecher, told me the best way to obtain custom is 
to form the acquaintance of some of the best physicians, as they 
will then recommend you * but you must always be ready to at- 
tend their patients, or they forget you. Her father was a phy- 
sician, and in that way she learned the treatment of leeches. 
It is well to get into the favor of persons that serve as leechers at 
the infirmaries — they may be willing to instruct you. The Ger- 
mans have killed the business in New York. Some charge but 
twenty-five cents for cupping, and proportionately low for leech- 
iDg. Leeching is sooner learned than cupping, but there is much 
less of both done than formerly. Homoeopathy has interfered with 
their use. She used to be out all day and up all night, but now 
she seldom has a call ; and yet she must be always at home, and 
ready for a call. She never goes to take a cup of tea with a 
friend, and is frequently called out of church. Leeching and 
cupping require a steady hand, and ability to use the scarificator. 
A person in the business must go into all kinds of sickness, with- 
out even asking what it is. Accidents give considerable custom, 
and in the sickly season there is most. It has become common 
for lads in apothecary shops to be sent out to apply leeches. 
When they are to be applied to any hidden part of a lady, a fe- 
male leecher, of course, is preferable. Mrs. A. charges twent}^- 
five cents a leech, if more than one is applied — if not, thirty- 
seven cents. For cupping she charges $1. One lady in New 
York charges not less than $1 apiece for applying leeches, and 
in some cases more. Mrs. L. thinks a lady could not make a 
living at the business in New York, because the Germans have 
killed the trade by working at half price, and, as might be sup- 
posed, do not properly understand it. A good location should 
be fixed upon for an office. A cupper and leecher is expected to 
go in all weather, and in all hours of the day and night, and in 
any kind of sickness. Most of it is done in fall and winter, be- 
cause there is then most inflammation. Judgment must be used 
in the quantity of blood to be drawn. A leecher should be a 
good judge of the quality of leeches, and the proper treatment of 
them. Particular attention should be paid to the directions of 
the doctor in applying leeches. Mrs. L. says there is an opening for 
a cupper and leecher in Albany, N. Y. A friend of hers there 
had to pay exorbitantly for the services of a leecher. 

435. Fishing-Tackle Preparers. In Philadelphia, 
I was told at the store where most fishing tackle is sold, that one 



414: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

woman is employed by them in fastening small hooks, with silk 
thread, on the end of worm gut. Large hooks are prepared in the 
same way for other kinds of fishing. It would seem that few 
women know of the existence of that kind of work in Philadelphia, 
for when the proprietor advertises for a female hand, he never 
has any applicants. It is clean, healthy work, and the materials 
can be easily carried home. Fifty cents a day a woman earns at 
it, but a man $1. There is but a small demand for fishing tackle 
in Philadelphia, but in New York the trade is much more im- 
portant. C, of New York, says most engaged in this work are 
English women. A fast and correct worker can earn £6 a week 
at it. They are paid for by the dozen. He finds women more 
honest than men, and therefore prefers them. Men will steal 
some of the line or some of the hooks. For making flies, a su- 
perior hand may earn $8 a week. Something of a mechanical 
turn is all that is necessary to make a good workman. They 
have more work of that kind done than any house in New York, 
and pay a better price to have it well done. Nets pay very 
poorly, because all the large nets are now made by machinery, and 
the smaller ones are made by infirm people, who do it to keep em- 
ployed as much as for the compensation. When the coarse net- 
ting is done by machinery, it can be obtained at 12^ cents a 
fathom, and a fathom of the same kind done by hand would re- 
quire a day. The peculiar system of the business is that the work 
is all done in winter, and the goods sold in summer. It is a 
luxury, and consequently dispensed with when times are hard. 
C. pays for putting hooks on the lines by the gross. The silk 
lines are manufactured in England. Gr. & B. employ four women 
who work at home in making fishing tackle and artificial flies. 
They are made in winter. An experienced hand can obtain $15 
a week, working from six in the morning till ten at night. He 
thinks, there are so few in the business, workers would not give 
instruction without good pay. A woman may possibly earn $4 
a week making nets. They employ Irishmen to weave the silk 
worm gut on the hooks. The three or four large fishing-tackle 
establishments in New York could furnish all that is needed for 
the United States. Mrs. K.. who makes artificial flies and fishing 
tackle, says she has now and then earned $9 a week — a difference 
of $6 in the report of the clerk. But there is considerable dif- 
ference in the amount of work of the different kinds; and as they 
are paid for by the gross, some kinds of work pay better than 
others. There is now considerable competition in this work, be- 
cause of the many that are out of employment. Girls apply at 
the store, offering to do the work at forty-two cents a gross. 
None are prepared South or West — so there maybe openings 



LODGING AND BOARDING HOUSE KEEPERS. 415 

"before long in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, &c. Making 
artificial flies is mostly in the hands of Irishmen. 

436. Fortune Tellers. In London is a class of men 
and women called Bruynackers, that take goods around in baskets 
to sell, and profess to tell fortunes. This magic power gives 
them influence over many silly girls, that are tempted to buy of 
them on that account. We cannot believe that God would 
vouchsafe to a mortal the power to foretell future events — to 
unite the present and future — time and eternity. The constitu- 
tion of all nature and the teachings of the Bible confute such a 
belief. " The veil," says some one, " which covers futurity is 
woven by the hand of mercy. Seek not to raise the veil there- 
fore, for sadness might be seen to shade the brow that fancy had 
arrayed in smiles of gladness." Wherever there are people 
tempted to pry into the future, there will be some to take ad- 
vantage of it. Many a fortune teller sells her soul to Satan for 
the power of imposing the belief that she reveals future events. 
The prices charged by fortune tellers for their services vary from 
25 cents to $5. 

437. Guides and Boor Attendants. " In Paris, the 
box offices of all the theatres are tended by women — not only 
those of the evening, but those open during the day for the sale 
of reserved places. The box openers and audience seaters are 
women." "The proprietor of the London Adelphi advertised, 
at the opening of the last season, that his box openers, check 
takers, and so on, would all be women." We have seen it stated 
that in some of the Roman Catholic churches in Paris, ladies of 
the congregation pass around the plates to take up a collection. 
Women in some of the old countries are occupied as doorkeepers 
at museums and galleries of paintings. In Great Britain, many 
of the door attendants are females, where the houses are occupied 
by several families, as is often the case. In England, some 
women are employed as pew openers. To come nearer home. 
Those who have visited the Academy of Fine Arts, in Phila- 
delphia, will remember the pleasant face of the janitress who 
receives the tickets of the visitors, and that an obliging young 
woman checked the canes and parasols. In New York, most of 
the picture galleries have female doorkeepers. 

438. Lodging and Boarding House Keepers. 
Patience, a spirit of forgiveness, and an ability to overlook faults, 
are very necessary for gliding along smoothly in this difficult and 
often ungrateful calling. A cheerful disposition, too, is almost in- 
dispensable, for everybody likes smiles better than frowns. A love 
of society is desirable. It is a principle that has been wisely im- 
planted in the human heart, and one that affords numerous and 



416 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

important advantages to mankind. It is one that tends to pro- 
duce a desire for the comfort aud happiness of those around. 
Yet too great a fondness for society may cause a neglect of duty 
and a love of gossipping. It is sometimes the case that light, 
frivolous talk and too great fondness for excitement characterize 
the keepers and inmates of a boarding house. Yet such, of 
course, is not always the case. Keeping a boarding house is an 
office that will give to one of a kind and benevolent nature a 
good opportunity of exercising her native qualities. Sympathy 
closely binds such to the unfortunate, and pleasures are doubled 
by participating with others. Whether those who keep boarding 
houses happen to have by nature more idle curiosity than others, 
or whether the business is one calculated to create and foster 
such a quality, I cannot say, but favor the latter opinion. The 
tempers of those who keep boarding houses are apt to be very 
much tried. They need great firmness and uniformity in de- 
portment. The price paid for boarding is usually proportioned 
to the comforts enjoyed, but not always. In early times, houses 
of entertainment for travellers were kept mostly by women. In 
a region of country where hunting and fishing are good, or the 
scenery fine, and the roads pleasant, ladies often accommodate, 
for the summer and autumn, families from the city. It is a very 
general fashion for people in the cities to go during the warmest 
weather to the country, seaside, or springs. Boarding house 
keepers usually find it most profitable to keep a large house, as 
only one kitchen and parlor are needed, and many other expenses 
attending a house are proportionately diminished. Good board- 
ing houses for workwomen are scarce in all large cities, particu- 
larly New York. Most keepers of boarding houses prefer men, 
because they are less about the house. I have been told that it 
is very difficult for work girls to get board in well kept houses. 
I think several respectable boarding houses should be established 
in large cities by wealthy and influential ladies, or religious so- 
cieties, for working women. In New York are some houses 
where none but merchants' clerks board. Why might not one or 
more be established for shop girls ? A list, as given by employ- 
ers, of the prices paid by work girls for their board, I will annex 
at the close of this work ; but I would add that comfortable 
rooms and wholesome food cannot be furnished in cities at these 
prices, and afford a reasonable profit to the keepers of the houses. 
And I would further say, the prices paid women for their labor 
does not enable them to pay higher rates for their board. 

439. Makers of Artificial Eyes. The science of 
supplying defects in the physique is such that an artificial man 
can almost be manufactured. Artificial teeth, hair, eyes, ears, 



MAKERS OF ARTIFICIAL EYES. 417 

noses, chins, palates, arms, hands, and legs, are some of the miss- 
ing parts of the frame that can be supplied. In the census report 
of Great Britain for 1850, we find four women under the head 
of artificial limb and eye makers. G., of New York, knows two 
or three ladies in Paris, and one in London, that are engaged in 
making the whites of glass eyes. G. may be able to give em- 
ployment to a lady in making the white of the e}<es, in a few 
months. It is done by blowing the glass, and requires but a 
short time to learn. He says he would pay a woman well for 
the work. I called at D.'s, a manufacturer of glass eyes, and 
saw D.'s son, a youth about eighteen years of age. He says there 
are but two other makers of glass eyes in the United States, and 
only two or three in London. D. spent fourteen years in Lon- 
don and Dublin, manufacturing eyes at the infirmaries, and giv- 
ing them away. He did it to get in practice. He prefers to in- 
sert the eyes himself. They move as a natural eye does, and 
certainly were very natural in color. He sells them at from $10 
to $20. Some physicians furnish their patients with them, 
charging $60 or $70 for one, and so making a handsome profit. 
"When a person that does not understand the form of the glass 
eye and the anatomy of the human eye inserts one, the inside of 
the eye is liable to become inflamed, and proud flesh is formed. 
D. spent a fortune experimenting. It requires an extensive 
knowledge of chemicals, and the effect produced on them by heat. 
A small furnace is used for burning the colors, in the glass. 
Some people would give thousands of dollars to know the chemi- 
cals used, and their proportions. The young man says his father 
has never even imparted to him the information. Some people 
that wear glass eyes take them out at night. D. judges of the shape 
and size required by merely looking at the remaining eye of the 
individual. We think a competent person in this business might 
establish himself at the South. I called on an Englishman who has 
been at the business twenty years in New York. He is over sixty 
years of age, and has been in the business fifty years ; learned it 
with his father in London. He had a number of certificates on 
his walls. He says a woman would go into a decline directly, if 
exposed to the heat of a furnace in baking eyes. It is necessary 
to stay in the oven while the change is taking place in the chem- 
icals. In summer it is intolerable. His son would not continue 
the business on that account. He says the French eyes are 
made of glass, covered with porcelain, and break easily; the 
white is made by being blown. The English are not blown, and 
are made entirely of porcelain. He says they will not break un- 
less very cold water is applied in bathing the eyes (a common 
fashion in the United States). He has had eyes worn for a year 
18* 



418 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

without being taken out. He takes the dimensions of the eye by 
fitting in different sized ones. If an eye is too small, it will slip 
out, fall, and break. It requires long experience to become pro- 
ficient in making glass eyes; but it is a beautiful art, and not in- 
appropriate to competent women. 

440. Artificial Limbs. We had thought, perhaps, a 
few women could be employed in this vocation, and accordingly 
addressed a circular to a gentleman so occupied. He thinks no 
women are engaged in this business in the United States or any 
other country; but says they could be, and the reason they are 
not is, there is not enough of the kind of work connected with it, 
that could be done by women, to employ them. " It requires some 
men one year to learn, some ^ve years, and some never can learn. 
It depends on natural ability and skill. The qualifications re- 
quired are skill, judgment, sobriety, morality, pleasing address, 
dignity, imitation, industry, love of the beautiful, and anatomy. 
The prospect of work is good ; superior workmen will succeed. 
The best seasons for work are from September 1st to July 1st. 
There is a demand for the work in California. Large seaport 
towns are not good localities — patients generally charity cases. 
Inland cities surrounded by a populous country, the best locali- 
ties — patients better able to pay." 

441. Artificial Teeth. It is said that 3,000,000 arti- 
ficial teeth are made in the United States annually. The mate- 
rials are all found in the United States. Each tooth passes 
through ten different processes. I called at J. & W.'s, Phila- 
delphia. They employ sixty-two girls, all American. They pay 
a learner, after two or three weeks' practice, according to the 
quality and quantity of her work. Their girls earn from $1.50 
to $7 per week; average $4.50. They have but one hand earn- 
ing $7. They would be glad to get more such at the same price, 
for it is difficult to get good hands. They have to turn away a 
great many applicants. The prospect is good to learners. They 
keep their hands all the year. The business has advanced rapid- 
ly during the last few years, and is likely to continue increasing. 
There are constant improvements in the business. Consequently 
a hand may be always improving. They will not receive a girl 
without reference, or credentials of moral character. They do 
not want any but intelligent girls, for the hand is guided by the 
mind. There are three or four processes carried on in different 
rooms. They work at the establishment, and never carry work 
home, unless a mother or sister is sick and requires their atten- 
tion. It is a light, genteel business ; and one well adapted to 
women of some education and intelligence. A lady in the cars 



NUIiSES FOR THE SICK. 419 

told me she knew a lady who received $7 a week for making 
teeth in Baltimore. She came to Philadelphia, but could not get 
as good wages ; so she returned to Baltimore. The New York 
Teeth Manufacturing Company pay from $3 to $5 a week. 
Learners are paid $2.50 a week, from the first, for six months ; 
and then, if competent, paid more. The work is not unhealthy. 
Men average $10, but their branch is different; the work is 
heavier. It requires about two months to learn, in one depart- 
ment. Neither men nor women are often taught more than one 
branch. All seasons are alike, and they are never out of work. 
The supply of hands is greater than the demand everywhere. 
Small hands, nimble fingers, and good eyesight are important to 
a worker. In the establishment of R., New York, four processes 
in the making of artificial teeth are performed by women. Some 
branches require a longer time to learn than others. It takes 
six months to learn any one perfectly. R. pays $3 a week to his 
learners, and $5 a week to experienced workers. Careful manip- 
ulation is the most that is needed. Judging from the increase in 
the last five years, the prospect for employment is excellent ; yet 
the openings in New York are limited. Women are the best 
workers, but some prefer men. The only manufacturers are in 
New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, and Bridgeport. It is desir- 
able to have careful workers. R. had a girl ruin $500 worth of 
teeth for him. The parts performed by women are cleaning the 
moulds, setting the pins, filling the moulds with the tocth mate- 
rials, and trimming, and putting on the pink color answering the 
place of gums ; also placing them on slides preparatory to baking 
and carding. 

442. Nurses for the Sick. Attention to this subject 
has been awakened during the last few years, by the heroic con- 
duct of Miss Florence Nightingale and the ladies who went with 
her to the Crimea to wait on the sick and wounded. When the 
people of England proposed making some testimonial of regard 
to Florence Nightingale, she proposed that, with the means ex- 
pended in doing so, they should establish an institution for the 
training of nurses. We would not fail to notice a fact that 
reflects much credit on Miss Anne M. Andrews, of Syracuse, 
N. Y. While the yellow fever raged in Norfolk, Va., she left 
her home and went alone to Norfolk, devoting her time and ser- 
vices to the sick of all conditions. She received the medal that 
is usually awarded to a physician on such occasions, and the citi- 
zens talked of placing a statue in a conspicuous part of their city, 
as a memorial of her goodness and their indebtedness. In Berlin, 
Vienna, Turin, and Halle, hospitals have been established for the 



420 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



education of nurses. In Germany, there has been one for many 
years. A number of good ladies connected with that institution 
are now in Pittsburg, where they form an order of deaconesses. 
Some take care of the sick, and some have charge of an orphan 
asylum. St. Luke's Hospital, New York, is under Episcopal 
supervision, and connected with it is an order of Protestant dea- 
conesses, who attend the sick. Most of the hospitals in thisl 
country have been established by the Roman Catholic Church, 
and are under its guidance. We think Protestant hospitals for 
the sick are greatly needed, especially in the Western and South- 
ern cities — Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and New 
Orleans. It may be that some exist in those cities ; but, if so, 
we think they must be quite limited in extent. Asylums for sick 
children are established in some of our largest cities. A number 
exist in Europe. A nurse should have a kind, sympathizing na- 
ture, good health, strong nerves, great powers of endurance, ability 
to sit up all night, and bear exposure to extremes of temperature. 
In addition, she needs a good memory, that she may give the right 
medicine at the proper time. If she has not, she should commit 
to paper such orders, and consult them frequently. A long and 
thorough training is needed by an attendant on the sick. Great 
self-control is necessary, for many persons are very impatient in 
sickness. A bright, cheerful spirit should be cultivated. A sweet 
voice is pleasant in a nurse, because a sick person is sensitively 
alive to the smallest matters. It requires a woman of education, 
consideration, and delicacy of feeling, to be an acceptable nurse 
to people of refinement ; and such an one must become attached 
to those she serves, if treated kindly. To make a kind and sym- 
23athizing nurse, one must have waited, in sickness, upon those she 
loved dearly. A nurse should use the precaution of wearing 
camphor, or something of that nature, on her person, particularly 
where there is contagious fever. The room should be large and 
well ventilated, and preventives used to keep the infectious air 
from spreading. A better class of women are employed to wait 
on the sick than formerly. The infirmary for women, established 
by Dr. Blackwell, in New York, is designed partly as a school for 
nurses. There is also an institution in Philadelphia for training 
them. Nurses earn from $4 to $10 a week. Some wait only on 
male patients, some only on ladies ; some attend incurables, but 
the most serve in general sickness. Mrs. B. gets $7 and sometimes 
$8 a week and her board for monthly nursing. She knows some 
that get $10 a week. She stays in the room with the lady and her 
infant, and takes care of and waits on them. When food is to be 
prepared, the child's clothes washed, or anything of that kind done, 



STREET MUSICIANS. 421 

she rings a bell and gives orders to a servant. Mrs. B., another 
ladies 5 nurse, charges from $8 to $10 a week, according to the 
amount of rest she loses at night. She told me that most good 
physicians keep a list of the best nurses. A nurse is expected to 
be able to make all the nice dishes required by her patient. In 
most small places, she is not expected to have the assistance of 
any one else, unless the sickness is very protracted, or the patient 
is delirious. In some places, a nurse is expected to close the eyes 
of the dying, and wash them after death, and perform any other 
service of that nature. But it is not uncommon for an under- 
taker's wife to be sent for to perform these duties, and take a 
measure for a shroud. For these services she is paid from $3 to 
$5. A nurse runs the risk of contracting a contagious disease ; 
but, if the system is in a good condition, there is not much dan- 
ger. As long as people are sick, which will be as long as there 
are any, nurses will be employed. Of course, there is most to 
do in sickly seasons. I called on Mrs. P., who charges $5 a week 
for her services. She does all that is required for the patient, 
except give medical advice. She would rather wait on men than 
women, as they are sure either to pay better wages or make pres- 
ents. As she has had children of her own, and raised them all, 
she feels competent to take care of children in sickness. It is 
well for a woman to have a home to go to, when relieved from the 
labor and anxiety of nursing. 

443. Steamboat and Railroad News Venders. 
Boys and men are much more frequently engaged in the sale of 
newspapers, than women and girls. They are more disposed to 
sell edibles. We have seen some little girls selling papers on the 
streets of New York and Philadelphia ; but we do not remember 
ever to have seen women selling papers at railroad depots or on 
steamboats, though many are seen with baskets of sweetmeats. 
Many, perhaps, cannot read, and do not wish to sell papers with 
whose contents they are unacquainted. Others may think they 
will be less likely to make any profit by their sale. Some women 
sell papers at stands on the streets of New York, and about the 
hotel doors. I saw a newspaper boy with an armful of Ledgers, 
He had sixty that he had bought at three and a half cents apiece, 
and was selling at four cents apiece. A girl that sells newspapers 
at the door of a hotel on Broadway, told me that she and her 
mother take turns about in being at the stand, and the profits of 
their joint sales are from 50 cents to §1 a day. She has several 
Sunday customers, to whose houses she takes ordered papers. 

444. Street BSusicians. Organ grinders and street 
harpers have ever found a fair representation in the softer sex. 
Such representation is, however, among our foreign population-— 



422 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

German and Italian, mostly. Last summer, in the streets of 
Philadelphia, might be seen, from day to day, a German woman 
with an organ on her back, and a baby in a hand-wagon, going 
from street to street, stopping now and then under a window to 
play. And in New York was another, whose organ was placed 
in a small barrow, which she wheeled through the streets of the 
city. We have seen two old women going through the streets of 
New York, one playing an organ, the other a tambourine ; and a 
few days since, we observed one drawing very creditable music 
from a violin. Girls in the Swiss costume are sometimes seen 
walking from place to place, with a harp and tambourine. Some 
people say that, by the encouragement of street musicians, we 
encourage idleness. Most such people would treat a musician 
with scorn, and close the door in their faces, but step out where 
they could enjoy the music and save their pennies; or they would 
stand behind closed shutters, that their neighbors might not think 
them capable of having such vulgar taste as listening to a street 
musician. Now, we may encourage a disposition to roam, but 
scarcely idleness. This propensity to roam may be unfavorable 
to the cultivation of business habits ; but the class of listless 
Italians who engage in it could never become business people. 
In the first place, harpers, violinists, and flutists must depend on 
their own skill and knowledge of music, to perform. They must 
prepare for their particular vocation, as others do. Those who 
play on organs, harmonias, and similar instruments, where no 
knowledge of music is necessary, we must admit, require no train- 
ing ; but walking, as most musicians do, from eight to twenty 
miles a day, is in itself laborious. We have been told that in 
New York most street musicians are employed by two or three 
individuals, who furnish the instruments, and allow the carriers 
to have so much of the proceeds. In older countries, there is a 
greater variety in the instruments used by street n- si clans. 
" There are sometimes fifty persons engaged in the sale of second- 
hand musical instruments on the streets of London." 

445. Tavern Keepers. The keeping of taverns in small 
villages, or on the roadside in the country, furnishes some with the 
means of gaining a livelihood. Women engaged in this business 
should be wives whose husbands can attend to receiving travellers, 
settling bills, ordering horses, and such duties, or widows with 
sons old enough to do so. It is laborious enough for a woman to 
superintend the table and bed rooms, and the man must be in 
wretched health, or good for nothing, that cannot attend to the 
out-door duties. Much money has been accumulated by some 
people keeping taverns in the Western country, where fifty cents 
is the usual price for a meal. Indeed, the accommodations are 



MISTRESSES. 423 

often such that a person cannot be rendered comfortable, and yet 
the price paid would command all the comforts of a good board- 
ing house in a large town. It is the same case with the hotel?, 
or saloons, at some railroad depots. At others an abundance of 
life's good things is furnished. The tavern keepers of London 
have a pension society. 

446. Travelling Companions. Travelling alone, is 
most favorable to thought, but not to pleasure. How much more 
we enjoy a lovely scene in nature, or the novel and brilliant sen- 
timents of an author, when in company with one to whom we can 
talk freely ! Good conversational powers, and an ability to appre- 
ciate the beautiful, are desirable in a travelling companion. Con- 
versation should flow in a free, easy, unrestrained current. Will 
it not promote the entertainment and edification of rational, re- 
sponsible, and immortal beings, to engage in wholesome conver- 
sation — to exchange sentiments in regard to books and the im- 
provements of the age — to learn of the heavens above and the earth 
beneath? In talking with strangers, might not much be learned 
of their various countries, and a thousand things pertaining to 
them ? Conversation exercises the imagination, gives play to a 
talent of invention, and strengthens the reasoning faculty. It 
sharpens thought as fermentation does wine. It tends, also, to re- 
store the diseased imagination of the secluded and morbidly sen- 
sitive. 



MISTEESSES AND DOMESTICS. 

447. Mistresses. We scarcely know that it is in 
place to say anything to this large and influential class of 
ladies. Yet, as we treat of servants, and endeavor to im- 
press their duty upon them, we hope we may be excused for say- 
ing a few words to those who have charge of them. From the 
relation existing between a mistress and her servants, the mistress 
is supposed to have had superior mental and moral advantages. 
Then let that strongest of all incentives, a good example, be given. 
In some cases, the only good influence likely to be exerted over 
the servant, is by the mistress. No woman of right feelings can 
look upon her servants as mere beasts of burden. She knows and 
feels that they have souls, and are accountable beings ; that each 
one is capable of extremes of misery and happiness. Should they 



424 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

not therefore receive kind and careful instruction in what is right ? 
If the same regular system of domestic service were employed in 
this country that exists in Europe, housekeepers would be saved 
much labor. There, each department, even of kitchen labor, is 
distinct, and a servant is promoted according to her industry and 
improvement. But the expense of a large number of servants is 
one that most people in our country feel unable to support. Dif- 
ficulties often arise from labor being required of servants that 
they have not stipulated to perform ; and no definite understand- 
ing as to the extent of the privilege of receiving visitors, is likely 
to prove a source of trouble. The thousand petty annoyances 
to which a mistress is subject, renders it necessary that she have 
a perfect command of her temper. A mistress must make great 
allowance for ignorance of what is right and wrong, for untamed 
passions, strong appetites, unimproved reason, and want of self- 
control. Many domestics are foreigners — ignorant, dull, and un- 
acquainted with our language. We are sorry to say some mis- 
tresses expect their servants to be faultless, when they themselves, 
with their superior advantages, are not so. Mistresses are re- 
sponsible, to some extent, for the spiritual, as well as the mental 
and physical good of their servants. They are in charge of im- 
mortal souls. The tendency of their influence and example must 
be either elevating or depressing. The quiet of the Sabbath, 
we think, might be granted to those in most departments of do- 
mestic labor. Cooks, we think, might prepare a dinner on Sat- 
urday, to be served cold on Sunday, with tea, if the weather be 
cold, or the habits of the people require it. Sabbaths have been 
called " milestones in the journey of life," and has not the poor 
cook, steaming over the fire day after day, need to count the 
milestones in the journey of her toilsome life ? Says Mrs. Graves, 
in her " Woman in America :" "Is it not strange, that, among 
all the societies of the day, not one should have been formed for 
the intellectual and moral improvement of domestic servants, and 
for instructing them in household employments ? " At the House 
of Protection, a Roman Catholic institution, New York, girls and 
women of good character, out of employment, or strangers in the 
city, are received on application. The girls are taught to wash, 
iron, do housework, sew, and embroider. Would that the Prot- 
estants would imitate this noble charity more fully ! I am happy 
to add that in connection with the Child's Nursery (a Protestant 
institution), Fifty-first street, New York, has been commenced a 
servants' school. Young girls taken into the institution receive a 
year's instruction in washing, ironing, house cleaning, and sewing. 
448. Domestics. We think an important work of benev- 
olence presents itself in Free States. It is providing homes for 



DOMESTICS. 425 

servant girls, when they are out of employment or sick. Many 
of them are in a strange land, unacquainted with the language 
and the waj^s of the people. When sick, some of them are im- 
mediately sent off by their mistresses to save the trouble of wait- 
ing on them. The negroes of the Slave States, when sick, are (if 
they have kind masters and mistresses) as tenderly cared for as 
any member of the family, and are never without a home in health 
or in sickness. That lonely and wretched feeling of having no 
place to consider home, is not their experience. Connected with 
this subject, arises one to which we have never yet given much 
attention, but which forces itself on our mind as one calling for 
attention from the benevolent : it is the establishment of insti- 
tutions for the afflicted portion of the colored population, both in 
Slave and Free States. We refer to the blind, the deaf and dumb, 
and the insane. We know of no separate institution for such, 
and no arrangement whatever, with the exception of limited ar- 
rangements for the insane, in connection with institutions for 
white people. Now and then we hear people advocate the old 
plan of binding orphans and destitute children. Whether that 
would be advantageous, would depend altogether on the kind of 
people to whom they were bound. Some servants soon fail, and 
and are not fit for service more than a few years. It arises mostly 
from their exposure to cold and dampness without being properly 
clothed and fed, and sometimes from a too free indulgence in the 
pleasures of the palate, particularly that of the consuming liquid 
which burns out life and sense. The hard work that most Irish 
women can perform, and the large number in this country, have 
made them the most numerous domestics in the Free States. 
They are generally employed as maids of all work. I think the 
number of American girls going into service is increasing. The 
majority of white female domestics in this country are single 
women, from sixteen to thirty-five years of age. In Providence, 
R. L, a census was taken in 1855, stating, among other partic- 
ulars, the number of American families having servants, the 
number in foreign families, and the aggregate ; but the number of 
white domestics has never been fully taken in the United States, 
even when collecting statistics for the census. A short time ago, 
we counted in the New York Herald eight columns of situations 
wanted, three fourths of which were by female domestics. It 
shows what a surplus there is of domestics in the cities, that no 
doubt could find situations through the country, and in the vil- 
lages. The majority of female domestics would rather starve 
in New York than go to the country, or even little towns around 
for fair wages. I think it arises from the fear that they will 
not find associates. A social feeling is natural, but should be 



426 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

controlled by circumstances. With many, the great drawback is 
the fear that they may not be able to have the privileges of their 
own particular church ; and still another is that they may not find 
the place to which they go, or are sent, exactly what it is rep- 
resented to be, and the expense that would be incurred by a 
return. Domestics are more respected in the countiy, and treat- 
ed more as members of the family, than domestics in towns. The 
preference is usually given, in towns and cities, to domestics from 
the country, because of their superior strength and better health. 
" For a person to be a good servant, there are three requisites : 
first, she must have professional skill in her calling ; secondly, she 
must be a good woman ; thirdly, she must have feelings of kindli- 
ness and regard to her master and mistress.' 1 ' In 1858, domestics 
were receiving wages in San Francisco proportioned to the prices 
paid for everything else. Cooks got $100 a month, and board; house 
servants, from $35 to $70, and board. Chambermaids $40 to 
$70, and board. Prices have fallen since 1853 in California, but 
good female domestics can now earn there from $25 to $30 a 
month besides board. " In most towns through our country 
domestics get from $1.25 to $2.50 a week, and board. We give 
the rates of wages of domestics in New York (1857) at the intel- 
ligence offices. Maids of all work, very raw, $4 per month ; 
average, $5; good, SG to 17. Chambermaids — good, $6. Cooks 
— good, $7 to $8 — extra $12 to $16. Laundresses $8 to $10. 
The cooks who obtain the highest rates, sometimes reaching £20, 
are employed mostly in hotels or private families, in New York. 
Five or six years' education in a restaurant, during which period 
the pupil is supporting herself, will thus often add seventy-five 
per cent, to the market value." I have had numberless state- 
ments from different parts of Free States that it was almost im- 
possible to obtain good domestics. I have just taken up a paper 
in which I read : " Female domestics are scarce in Minnesota 
and Wisconsin, and obtain employment readily at good prices 
in almost all the river towns." More particularly are female 
domestics scarce, where there are factories. Girls, especially 
American girls, prefer to work in factories to being servants, as 
they think it more honorable, and it secures to them more time — 
in short, they are more their own mistresses. 

449. Chambermaids. a Of the 200,000 female servants 
in England, the largest in number, the shortest in life, and of 
course the worst paid are the general housemaids, or unhappy 
servants of all work." Chambermaids in the United States may 
be classed under three heads : those in hotels, those in private 
families, and those on steamboats. The business of a chamber- 
maid in a hotel, or on a steamboat, is an occupation affording 



CH AMBEKM AIDS . 42 7 

variety in frequent change of faces. Of course, prices and con- 
ditions are stipulated for. Many get §20 a month, and do the 
washing of the boat, that is, the table and bed linen. Others get 
$25, $30, and $35 a month. On small boats, they are expected 
to do the washing of the boat, bat in some cases have a woman 
hired while in port to assist them. On large boats, or small 
packet boats, there are generally two chambermaids. The first 
chambermaid attends to receiving lady passengers, seeing, that 
they are furnished with berths, and giving them such attention 
as they need. She cleans the state rooms, and wakes any lady 
passengers that are to land in the night. The second chamber- 
maid does the washing and ironing. In some cases, the washing 
is sent up from the boats, while in port, to laundries. _ But 
clothes are thought to be injured in that way, and the plan is not 
so popular as while the novelty lasted. Most of the rivers of the 
United States are either too low to be navigable, or are frozen 
over, part of the year ; so, constant employment in that Avay can- 
not be found. The first chambermaid on the steamboat E. receiv- 
ed $20 a month. Her business was to wait on the ladies. She 
had several hours' time that she could devote to sewing for her- 
self. The second chambermaid did the washing of the boat, and 
received $15 per month. A steamboat chambermaid told me 
she averages $20 a month (and board, of course) ; but, in addition 
to her services as chambermaid, is required to do the washing 
for the boat ; that is, the sheets, table linen, and towels. In 
families, the prices for chambermaids are about the same as at 
hotels, and of course the duties are pretty much the same, except 
that in families all of a chamber maid's time is expected. In a 
hotel, a chambermaid is often through her work in the early part 
of the afternoon, and has several hours as her own. We think it 
advisable for a servant to keep a place with good people, even if 
her wages are less, rather than with more selfish and more re- 
munerative people. The first mentioned would feel an interest 
in, and be more ready and willing to do for a servant in sickness 
or distress. Besides, they would be more apt to keep a watch 
over her welfare, should circumstances intervene to bring about 
a separation. It does not answer well for servants to move about 
much from place to place ; it is likely to create suspicion of un- 
faithfulness or want of qualification. Yet, if they are not com- 
fortable and satisfied, I would advise them to move, if confident 
they have a prospect of bettering their condition. The usual wages 
of chambermaids in cities are from SI. 50 to $2.50 per week. 
In the Northern cities, white chambermaids are rather better paid 
than in Southern, as colored servants are preferred in the South. 
For doing housework by the day women receive in New York, 



428 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

fifty, seven ty-five cents, and $1; for cleaning stores, they often 
receive $1.25 per day. Tidy, honest American girls will not 
find much difficulty in getting situations. If every family in 
New York city would take a girl, and either instruct her thor- 
oughly or have her instructed in one branch of domestic service, 
there would not be such universal complaint of bad servants. In 
Paris, men are employed in some hotels as chambermaids. In a 
newspaper, we met with the following paragraph some time ago ; 
" Females are so scarce in some of the interior towns of Cali- 
fornia, that men have to be employed to do the chamberwork." 

450. Cocks. I know of several benevolent institutions in 
Philadelphia and New York where poor women are furnished 
with employment. From most of them sewing is given out ; but, 
in a few, housework is given to those who cannot sew. A school 
of cookery is now in operation in London. The object is to give 
instruction, gratis, to the lower classes, in preparing the most 
common articles of food in general use. It was established by 
Miss Burdett Coutts. To acquire the higher branches of the 
art requires much time and practice. Much of the nutriment of 
food is lost in cooking. Health depends much on the kind of 
food eaten, and the way in which it is prepared. Simple diet is 
most healthy ; yet what contributes to the nourishment of one 
person may not to another. Persons can better learn what is 
nutritious and beneficial to them in health than it were possible 
for an iEseulapius to prescribe. Eating too hastily and too 
hurriedly, when the mind is excited and agitated, is one cause of 
bad health. The modes of preparing food, in the most whole- 
some way, should be a matter of study and interest to all engaged 
in a matter where health is so much at stake. Articles of food 
that contribute to the nourishment of every part of the body 
should be used. Children should have not only wholesome food, 
but as much as nature craves, when the system is in a state of 
health. A morbid appetite, of course, should be regulated. Some 
cooks devote themselves exclusively to the making and baking of 
pastry. At hotels they command a good price. In New York 
and Philadelphia, cooks receive from $1.50 to $5 a week, but in 
the small towns adjoining do not get more than from $1 to $1.50. 
Much of the success of servants will depend upon themselves. 
They may rest assured they will be able to please most families 
if they are good-natured, honest, truthful, active, and willing to 
do what they can. They will need patience. They should con- 
sider there are many trials, cares, and griefs attendant on those 
occupying a more responsible station. Punctuality is a desirable 
item in a cook. A skilful cook, of taste and experience, can, at 
any time, for reasonable wages, obtain a situation in one of the 



DINIKG-ROOM WAITEES. 429 

Northern cities. Hotel cooks are most frequently in demand, 
and receive from 812 to $25. A woman who cooks for a saloon 
frequented by gentlemen only, in a business part of New York, 
told me that she goes at 8 in the morning and remains, generally, 
until 2 o'clock next morning, when she goes home. She is paid 
$12 a month for her work, having her meals besides. A colored 
man, a public cook, told me he employs two or three women to 
assist him in getting up parties. He pays them from $6 to $7 a 
week. He loans plate for parties, charging for plated knives 
twenty-five cents a dozen, and the same price for forks, and 
thirty-seven or fifty cents for a basket. He keeps some articles, 
but hires most from another party. Sometimes he will receive 
three or four orders a day ; then again he may not have one for 
two weeks. It is a very irregular business. He prepares lunches 
for bankers and political men, mostly ; but finds it inconvenient, 
as these lunches are often given in their offices, and he prepares 
the dishes at home, and must have them warm when served up. 
In some offices, he can have an apartment for that purpose ; in 
others, he cannot. A colored woman, who goes on a propeller in 
summer, and does the cooking for ten men, told me she receives 
$19 a month. The boats at New York seldom stop running 
longer than three months in the year. She thinks the trouble in 
New York is, you cannot have one kind of work regularly. In 
Germany, most of the women, in every class of society, learn to 
cook. In Stuttgart, a wealthy man died, leaving a certain sum, 
the interest of which goes to a given number of the best hotel 
cooks, to teach a limited number of young women the art. In 
some cities in Germany, ladies pay something to pastry cooks at 
hotels and restaurants for instruction in cooking. 

451, Dining-Room Waiters. It would be well, had 
we such laws as England, for the protection and rights of ser- 
vants. There, a servant cannot have her character scandalized, 
her good name maligned, or her faithfulness as a servant belied. 
Neither may a servant say aught that is false against her mis- 
tress. Scandalizing becomes, oftentimes, a curse in our Free 
States, and consequently self-respect, with servants, becomes, to 
a great extent, a defunct virtue. Nor is the fault confined to one 
party. Both are often culpable — mistress and servant. A good 
character is the best capital a servant can possess. Servants 
have an opportunity of improving themselves, and gaining much 
practical information from intercourse with their mistresses while 
in the discharge of their duties. If worthy American girls would 
get situations as domestics in respectable families, they would be 
likely to fare better than by working in shops ; for they would 
lay by more money, secure the interests and good wishes of their 



4:30 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

employers, and be more certain of lasting employment. A servant 
should be active and quick in motion, to perform well the duties 
of a waiter. In 1854, from seventeen to twenty-four white girls 
were employed as dining-room waiters at the Delavan House, 
Albany, N. Y. Their wages were from $5 to 87, in one or two* 
cases $8, a calendar month. The wages of men for similar ser- 
vice were from §14 to $20. The ages of the women were from 
seventeen to twenty-four. They dressed uniformly in calico, 
and were under a head waiter — a man. At that time, women 
had been employed at the establishment about two years and a 
half. The result was entirely satisfactory in every respect. A 
gentleman inquired of the proprietor, after he had employed 
them two years, if there was any inferiority to men's service, and 
was informed there was not any. They were more quiet than 
men, and less troublesome. In this time, only four had left the " 
house of their own accord, and then to be married. When more 
hands were needed, there was no difficulty in getting them. It 
was apprehended that improprieties might occur, from the gal- 
lantries of the gentlemen. No difficulty of the kind had been 
experienced. It was suggested that it might be otherwise in a 
liquor house. In April, 1860, we had a few lines from the pro- 
prietor of the Delavan House, saying he found women would not 
answer for first-class hotels, where the crowd is very great, as the 
work is too severe. He changed the plan of having them in 
1858. 

452. Ladies' Maids. Some of the most wealthy or self- 
indulgent ladies have a female attendant to dress and wait on 
them, but it is not so common in the United States as in older 
and more wealthy countries. In Slave States, a colored woman, 
graceful and good natured, is often set apart from the family ser- 
vants for this purpose. The difficulty that attends the taking of 
a colored servant in travelling, sometimes calls for a white at- 
tendant to act in this capacity. The business is light, and brings 
good wages. A maid should endeavor to secure a place with a 
lady that is amiable and patient. She will find ability to per- 
form the services of a lady's hair dresser a valuable acquisition. 

453. Nursss for Children. None should enter this 
occupation unless they have a love for children. It requires af- 
fection and patience. Added to this, is needed a degree of mild 
firmness that children find it difficult to resist. It requires 
strength too, and a lady had better, if possible, furnish a grown 
nurse for her child. Nurses receive as wages from $1 to 81.25 
per week. Wet nurses receive higher wages. Being able to 
speak the French and German languages correctly, is in some 
places a desirable qualification. Fashionable and educated peo- 



WASHEES, IRONEES, AND MANGLEES. 431 

pie, who desire to have their children early instructed in the lan- 
guages, are willing to pay a better price for such a nurse. The 
habit of nursing children is indicated, in both mothers and nur- 
sery maids, by the right shoulder being larger and more elevated 
than the left. C. thinks it would be well for young American 
girls to devote themselves to domestic service — thinks it a mis- 
placed pride which prevents their doing so. Many would cer- 
tainly be much better off in every respect than they now are, and, 
if their affairs were well conducted, would save money. 

454. Saloon Attendants. " This class of labor is per- 
formed by young men and girls. Although the girls are preferred 
in some places, and do make most excellent waitresses, their re- 
muneration is not as high as that paid to men. In some cases the 
men get as high as $14 a month ; in most cases, however, they do 
not receive more than $12 a month. The girls get paid from $8 
to $10 a month, varying according to experience. The hours 
employed do not exceed, in most cases, ten per day. These rates 
are exclusive of board and lodging. Where lodgings are not pro- 
vided, an allowance is made for the purpose." The ladies that T. 
employs in his saloon, board in the International — a hotel con- 
nected with the saloon and confectionery. He pays them $6 a 
month, besides their board. M., Broadway, pays those that stay 
in his confectionery $12 a month, and their board. In the north- 
ern part of France, women are employed on some of the packet 
boats as table waiters. They are young and pretty, and miscon- 
duct among them is very rare. 

455. Washers, Ironers, and ©danglers, The plan 
of washing by steam is said to have been practised many years 
back in France. * There were, some years ago, over 300 different 
models of washing machines at the Patent Office in Washington. 
Some families have their washing clone by hand, some by ma- 
chinery, and some at laundries. Where washing, ironing, and 
mangling are carried on extensively, it is mostly by men, but 
ivomen are employed to do the labor. It is thought by some that 
clothes are injured when washed at laundries. We do not know 
whether it originates from the plan of washing, or the carelessness 
of those employed. In New York is a public washing house, 
where, for four cents an hour, steam, water, and troughs can be 
used for washing clothes. At the same price, the privileges of the 
wringing machine, the drying room, and the ironing room are 
granted. A mangier costs from $50 to $100. Those that are 
operated on by steam cost more, and are often used in laundries. 
A woman told me that she is paid fifteen cents a dozen for man- 
gling sheets and table cloths. She can mangle eight or nine dozen 
pieces a day, and so earn from $1.20 to $1.25. It takes but a 



432 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

very short time to become expert. Strong arms and a strong back 
are more necessary than anything else. She could work her mangle 
all day, but it would be a hard day's work. She has much work 
in summer, Ibefore people go to the country. The prices given for 
family washing and ironing by the dozen, range from fifty cents to 
$1. Others make arrangements by the parcel, at so much a week 
or month. Those employed in ironing receive good wages. Where 
new shirts are done up for stores, the best prices are given. A 
woman employed in an establishment of the kind in Cincinnati, 
told me that she received for her work, which was ironing the 
bosoms of new shirts for stores, $7 a week. She ironed thirty 
or forty a day, averaging one, T think, every twelve minutes. I 
called on Mrs. S., who has a laundry. Women in that branch 
are well paid, both principals and employees. Some of the laun- 
dry keepers in New York go down to Castle Garden and get fresh 
emigrant girls. They give them their board until they can wash 
right well (for about four weeks), then pay them by the week or 
the piece. If by the week, $6 a month and their board, or allow 
them SI. 50 a week to pay their board. They instruct some hands 
in ironing, if they need hands in that department. When quali- 
fied, they pay three cents a shirt for ironing; or, if by the week, 
$4.75. It is most satisfactory generally to both parties to pay by 
the piece. The best doers up of muslin and cotton goods are the 
French. New shirts are sent from Boston, Philadelphia, &c, to 
New York, to be done up. The openings for ironers are good, 
and the work pays well. A right active, skilful hand can iron 
fifty shirts a day, and so earn $1.50. When women are employed 
by the week, they are required to iron twenty-five shirts a day, 
and, if brisk, may get through by one or two o'clock. Mrs. S. 
charges $1.50 a dozen for store shirts, and $1 for others. Wash- 
ers earn $12 a month ; ironers, $21 ; and starchers, $14. The 
girls employed in laundries are mostly Irish, with strong muscular 
power. A shirt manufacturer told me that ironers of new shirts 
are much needed. He cannot obtain enough. Ironers can learn 
the business in three months. Ironers earn from $5 to $8 per 
week. I called on A. Gr., who charges from $1 to $1.50 a dozen 
for doing up new shirts, according to the quality and the work on 
them. She pays her ironers from $10 to $12a month. I called 
at B.'s laundry. The proprietor and his family are Americans. 
They do only store shirts. They employ more than one hundred 
hands, who are boarded and paid by the month. Learners receive 
their board. Ironers are paid best. Those that work fast get 
through earliest in the day, each one having a certain number to 
do. I called at another laundry, where I was told all the girls 
receive $1.75 per week for board money. While learning, they 



BALLOON MAKERS. 433 

are paid their board money, and more, if their services are worth 
it. The washers are paid $12 a month, and ironers from $10 to 
$25, boarding themselves. Some are fast, and some are slow ; 
some smart, and some stupid. The ironers are paid 2j cents a 
piece for common shirts, 2^ for fine ones. The proprietor says 
experienced ironers are so scarce, you never find a good one in 
an intelligence office. If a laundryman fails, a good ironer can go 
to another laundry and get a place at once. At another place, I 
was told their washers receive $5 a month and their board. Iron- 
ers are paid by the month, and required to do so many in that 
time. She corroborated the statement of the other that a good 
ironer need never want a place. I heard a washerwoman say 
that, as the system is very much relaxed by washing, the vapor 
from the suds and soiled clothes renders it unhealthy. H. pays 
ironers $10 a month and board ; $1.75 a week. Some he boards 
in his own house. An ironer is expected to iron from twenty to 
thirty a day, according to the contract. It requires a long time 
to iron well. Almost all washers and ironers are Irish girls — they 
are stronger and quicker in their motions. He has washing done 
only for the New York stores, because the time and trouble of 
going to steamboats for those from other places and returning 
them, are more than he wishes. 



MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS, AND 
WOEKEES THEEEIN. 

456. Backgammon-Board Finishers. We called at 
L.'s backgammon-board manufactory, and saw a girl about thir- 
teen years old, who has worked at the business for one year. She 
pastes the morocco on the back of the boards, and lays the gold 
leaf on, which is passed under a press, and receives, from a man 
who has charge of it, the ornamental gilding. They used to em- 
ploy girls, and paid $4 a week, working from 7 to 6 o'clock — 
eleven hours. L. does not take learners — it is too much trouble. 
K. used to employ girls in finishing boards, but those he had 
were not steady and reliable. 

45 7. Balloon Makers. Large balloons are stitched up by 
sewing machines. Prof. L.'s required several days' work. Prof. 
W.'s sister and niece make both cotton and silk balloons. They have 
the substance put on the silk by men with a brush. They think 
that part of the work would be rather hard on women, because 
of the stooping and bending. 
19 



434 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

458. Billiard-Table Finishers. I saw G., who employs 
one woman to make and put on the billiard bags at the corners 
and sides. He pays her such wages for her work that she can 
by industry earn $1.50 a day. He does not know of any woman 
that makes it a regular business, but thinks, if a woman could en- 
gage all that kind of work to be had at the billiard manufactories 
in New York city, it would be a good business, and probably pay 
about $3 a day. It is very easy work, and would require but a few 
weeks' practice. Besides, it would not require any capital, as the 
manufacturers furnish the materials. They pay twenty-five cents 
for making a cover of unbleached domestic, when two seams are 
sewed and it is hemmed at the ends. The cloth that is fastened 
on the table could not be put on by a woman, as it requires too 
much strength. Netting the bags is done by hand. I was told 
by a manufacturer that two women could do all the work for 
New York. 

459. Bill Posters. This is a business confined to cities. 
W. heard of one woman that went through New York distrib- 
uting circulars for some benevolent institution. I do not see 
why a woman might not be so employed. An immense quantity of 
waste paper is sold in London to grocers, butchers, fishmongers, 
poulterers, and others that need paper for wrapping up the arti- 
cles they sell to purchasers. 

460. Block Cutters. Block cutters prepare blocks of 
wood for the coloring of wall paper. A block about eighteen 
inches square and two inches thick is made perfectly smooth. 
The pattern is then traced on it with a lead pencil. It is then 
cut with chisels, which are of all sizes and many shapes. Each 
one, as required, is driven into the wood with a mallet. It re- 
quires considerable physical strength, but is remunerative when 
sufficient orders are given to keep one constantly employed. 
Each color, and even shade, in wall paper, requires a separate 
block. It is the same case where wooden blocks are used for 
printing calicoes. The wall-paper establishments in Philadelphia 
are the most extensive in the United States. A lady in Phila- 
delphia, engaged in the business, told me that she got about $10 
a week, working ten hours a day, but that she had not orders 
enough to keep her constantly employed. At N. & C.'s paper- 
hanging factory, New York, they employ six male block cutters, 
who earn from $2 to $2.25 a day. A boy, when apprenticed to 
a block cutter, receives $2.50 a week the first year, $3 the next, 
$4 the next, and $5 the last. There are probably from sixty to 
one hundred block cutters in New York city. Block letters, we 
were told, are made by machinery. A gentleman in Maine 
writes : " There are but very few females in this section who work 



BOTTLEKS AND LABELLERS. 435 

at block cutting (blocks for printing oil carpets) ; but three or 
four in this State, I think. 1 have none with me excepting my 
wife. It is a branch of business that females cannot carry on 
alone, as the most of it requires considerable labor that women 
are not able to perform." In the census returns of Great Britain 
for 1850, we find four women under the head of block cutters. 

461. Boatwomen. In the countries of Europe, it is not 
unusual to see women employed as rowers of boats, on the lakes 
and rivers. On the lakes of Scotland, made famous by the poetry 
and fiction of Sir Walter Scott, women are seen waiting in their 
little boats to take passengers out on the lakes. In the sealochs 
of Scotland, fisherwomen manage their own boats. In Germany, 
women also ply the oar. In the United States, it is seldom done ; 
but I think Miss Murray, in her Travels, mentions being rowed 
upon a lake in New York State by a woman. Some of the In- 
dian women, of the Arctic regions, are noted for their skill in the 
management of a boat ; and some of the women of the Polynesian 
Islands are distinguished in the same way. In the census of 
Great Britain for 1850, in class eight, and third division (Carriers 
on Canals), are reported 1,708 bargewomen over twenty years 
of age, and 525 under that age. 

462. Bone Collectors. Some collectors of bones sell 
them to people who make soup of them, and sell it to the poor at 
a penny a bowl. Some sell their bones to soap manufacturers, who 
boil them to obtain the marrow and oily substance, and then sell 
them to button makers, or makers of cane and whip handles. 
Some sell them to glue manufacturers, who boil them to obtain 
the gelatine for making glue. Some have establishments where 
they are ground and sold as a fertilizer for the soil. Some bone 
gatherers give toys to children for collecting bones. I saw a girl 
gathering some, who told me she sold them at fifteen cents a 
half bushel. She gathers sometimes half a bushel a day, and 
sometimes more. A boy told me he got thirty cents a bushel for 
bones ; and another, that he got one cent a pound. The profit 
must be great of those who sell them again, judging from the 
price paid by the makers of cane handles. Yet it may be, so 
much is not paid by manufacturers for those taken from the 
street as for new ones. 

463. Bottlers and Labellers. In large establishments 
where wine, porter, ale, or beer is corked, women could, and in 
some places do, have the job. When it is done from day to day, 
it affords a reliable resource. The payment is generally, I be- 
lieve, by the dozen or hundred bottles. " In one house or more, 
in London, are seen from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 
women bottling pickles all day long, at the charge of sixpence a 



*r 



436 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

score of bottles, at which an industrious woman, without any extra 
exertion, will earn her two shillings a day." In establishments 
for the sale of patent medicines and other articles of a similar 
nature, women are employed. I saw a man bottling lager beer 
by hand. He is paid $15 a month, and full board. For label- 
ling/ another received $6 a month, and full board. In Europe, 
where women do such work, they wear wooden shoes to keep their 
feet dry. A woman could as well cork as a man, when it is done 
by hand, and, no doubt, could use the machines employed for 
corking. A large manufacturer of hair restorative employs two 
girls to put it up, and pays from $3 to $4 a week. A brewer 
writes that " women might be employed in the bottling depart- 
ment, cleaning, filling, corking, &c., but the proportion would be 
small in comparison with the number of men at work." A woman 
that buys and sells empty bottles says she and her husband made a 
comfortable living at it. If they make three cents profit on a 
dozen they do well. They send a wagon to hotels, groceries, and 
private houses, if the number is sufficient to justify it. They 
find a ready sale for their bottles. The bottles must be washed 
clean before they will buy them. I was told at the office of Mrs. 
W.'s S. Syrup, that girls are paid by the week, from $5 to $6. 
R., in putting up his Ready Relief, employs several girls to fill 
bottles, cork and label them. They earn from $3 to $6 a week. 
They are paid by the quantity, and the work is all done in daylight. 
Until the last few days they have had work all the year round. 
S. employs from five to ten girls, and pays from $4 to $5 a week 
for bottling medicines and putting up Seidlitz powders. He keeps 
his hands all the year. They can either sit or stand. He does 
not know of any women being so employed South or West. L. 
employs three, and pays $5 a week, ten hours a day. One is em- 
ployed in putting up Seidlitz powders — the others in bottling. 
All three work at the store. K. employs three girls to put up 
Seidlitz powders, perfumery, &c. He pays from $3 to $3.50 a 
week. B. & M., stove-polish manufacturers, employ girls to put 
up the polish in papers. The paper is folded on a wooden 
block and pasted, then withdrawn, and the polish put in and sealed. 

464. Broom Makers. C. employs a girl to paint the 
handles of brooms, paying $4 a week, of ten hours a day. After 
New Year is the most busy season. It requires but a short time 
to learn. A man can earn at broom making $1.25 to $1.75 a 
day. At some of the broom factories girls are employed to as- 
sort the broom by laying perfect pieces of a certain length in one 
pile, and those shorter in another, &c. Only strong, robust 
women could perform the entire process of broom making. 

465. Bronzes. When a bronze appearance is desired for 



CANVAS AND COTTON BAG MAKERS. 437 

some metals, bronze powders are used. I have been told that a 
patent has been granted for the making of them. Parties that 
we think competent to know tell us that " bronze powders are 
made in very few establishments in this country, and they think 
women and boys, much more than men, are both here and in 
Europe engaged in the making and working of bronze. They 
suggest that manufacturers, printers, japanners, and all who have 
operatives engaged in handling bronze powders should, in all 
cases, see that their people are protected, by gauze, sponge, or 
some sort of screen over the mouth and nostrils, from inhaling 
the fine particles that arise and impregnate the atmosphere where 
the powders are handled, and which are liable to cause serious 
injury to those who inhale them. The same might also be said of 
Dutch metal or gold leaf used in gilding house paper and other 
things." Magnetic masks are used by some grinders and pol- 
ishers to prevent iron filings from passing down their throats. 
We suppose they would answer also for bronzers. Men oppose 
the introduction of women into the business. I saw three sisters 
bronzing in New York. They told me each receives $5 a week, 
and works about nine hours a day. It requires but a few months' 
practice to become perfect, and seemed to be an easy business. 
The young ladies employed at it looked genteel enough to grace 
any calling. Men get $10 a week. Women do it just as well, if 
not a little better, and accomplish just as much, yet receive only $5. 
I called in the store of the Ornamental Iron Works, New York. 
The young man says they employ about twenty-five German bron- 
zers. It is a work easily done, and would require but a short time 
to learn. Women could just as well do it as men. If women 
were employed, it would be desirable to have a separate room for 
them to work in. Their men work ten hours a day, and receive 
from $1.50 to $2 a day. 

466. Canvas and. Cotton Bag Makers. The firm 
of B. E. C. & Co. employ about forty females during the whole 
year, and seventy during the summer. Men cut out the bags. 
The folding and turning is done by little girls, who receive, some 
$1.50 per week, and some more, while the sewing is done by 
machines, for which the operators receive $4.50 per week. I do 
not remember what the spoolers were paid. This business is 
confined exclusively to seaports or river cities, and is not very 
extensive. The usual time required is ten hours. For extra 
work, girls receive double wages. C. & Co. have certain regula- 
lations, requiring morality and order. The girls were more 
cheerful, neat, and genteel-looking than the general run of work 
girls. They have a dressing room, where each one has a peg 
for her bonnet and shawl, and a small box in which to lay her 



438 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

dinner. They have washbowls and all the conveniences needed. 
Spring and fall are their most busy times, but they are able to 
keep their hands all the year in prosperous times. They are al- 
ways busy just before the sailing of vessels, as they supply many 
vessels with bags to carry grain. They are well located for their 
business, being immediately on the river. The prospect for 
learners C. thinks very good, as bags are considered almost as 
essential as boats ; and now they can be purchased so cheaply they 
are used for purposes to which they were never applied before. 
V. employs fifteen girls all the year, and sometimes extra help. 
Some girls get $3.50, and some $4 a week, of ten hours a day. 
Most of their machines are propelled by hot air. They never 
have any trouble in getting hands. There are a few bag facto- 
ries in the West. W. & 0. make cotton bags for flour, seed, 
grain, &c. We saw the girls sewing on machines moved by 
steam. They are paid $3 a week, ten hours a day. Their girls 
are not punctual, and are so often absent that they find it ne- 
cessary to employ more hands than they want, that they may not 
get out of a supply. I met an old woman with bolts of heavy 
unbleached cotton, who was going to make up bags, sewing them 
with the needle. She receives seventy-five cents for one hundred 
bags. A bag manufacturer in Boston writes : " W T e pay by the 
week; girls, from #3 to 84 — men, $7.25. The men's branch re- 
quires from six to twelve months to become proficient and reliable. 
Women require about one week. Perseverance and industry are 
needed by workers. Business in future is dubious. Winter and 
spring are the best seasons, but we are generally employed ten 
months out of the year. The hands work ten hours, unless driven 
up by brisk trade, when extra wages are p aid pro rata. They 
receive all the comforts which women of this class require, viz., 
sufficient to live upon, with a small surplus for the priest, and to 
send to ' oulcl Ireland.' The labor of the men and women are 
entirely dissimilar. The advantages have been entirely in favor 
of the city of Boston ; but from present indications, I fear that this 
business, if done at all, will be done in the cities of Charleston, 
Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans. The women can scarcely 
read ; none can write. They can have free access to the city 
library and free evening schools. Board, $1.25 — mostly whole 
families in one room." 

467. Carriage and Car Painters. At a very large car 
establishment in New York, I was told that when they take boys 
to learn ornamental painting, they pay $2.40 a week the first year. 
After that, eight cents a day more, the next year ; and so continue 
until the apprenticeship expires. Three or four years are usually 
given. We saw a foreman ornamenting the side of a car to be 



CARRIAGE TRIMMERS. 439 

sent to Liverpool, who was taken by the firm when a penniless 
boy. He now has §3,000 deposited with his employers, drawing 
a handsome interest. The painters are paid twenty-five cents an 
hour while ornamenting cars, and omnibuses. They do their work 
better than when paid by the piece. They prefer Germans, as 
they have more taste, and are more easily obtained. Miss H. 
knew a young lady that painted a cutter. Her father was a 
coach painter, and she painted in oils on canvas. A lady, if she 
would give time and attention, might become an ornamental 
painter of carriages, omnibuses, and cars. E. Gr. & Co., car 
builders, in Troy, write : " There are some portions of our orna- 
mental painting women might be instructed to perform, that 
would be suitable for them, and, if proficient, they could make 
good wages at it." 

468. Carriage Trimmers. I was told by G-., a car- 
riage maker, that women usually make the cushions and trim- 
mings for carriages. At a railroad-ear and omnibus factory, the 
trimmer told me the work was too hard for women. The sewing 
is all done by hand. Much wax must be used on the thread, and 
a machine will not draw the threads tight enough. A shield of 
leather is worn on the little finger. I have read that " landscape 
painters, upholsterers, and trimmers of cars and carriages receive 
from $1.50 to $2 per day, of ten hours, in New York and New 
Jersey- Women are not generally employed ; but they are occa- 
sionally serviceable in preparing the hair for seats, by which they 
could make, at steady employment, from $3 to $5 per week." 
B., at his carriage manufactory, said he intends employing two 
women to make curtains for his carriages. He now employs a 
girl to make covers for them. He thinks the curtains and much 
of the lining might be stitched by a machine. He thinks women 
might i make fair wages at it — say, $4 or $5 a week. A carriage 
maker in Boston writes me : "I employ female labor only to the 
amount of about $50 a year. It is done by the piece, and a 
woman who is tolerably smart with her needle can in a very short 
time learn to do it, and can earn from eight to ten cents an hour. 
The work is irregular, a large portion of it coming in the months 
of April, May, and June, and sometimes requiring to be done at 
short notice." Car builders in Albany, N. Y., write : " Dear 
• Madam — In reply to your inquiries, would say that, out of sev- 
enty-five to eighty hands employed by us, two only are women. 
One has charge of a sewing machine, the other picks curled hair. 
They have constant employment, at $5 a week." Carriage 
makers in Syracuse reply to a circular, saying : " We employ 
one lady to run the sewing machine in making leather and cloth 
tops for carriages. The work is healthy. We pay from $3 to $4 



440 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

per week, of ten hours a day. Girls receive from one third to 
one half as much as men. It requires about two months to learn. 
Learners receive from $2 to $2.50 per week. The prospect for 
more such work to women is increasing. The employment is 
steady. There is a demand for women capable of good, heavy 
stitching." C — s, of New Haven, write : " We employ about 
tw T elve women in carriage trimming, running sewing machines, &c 
Good wages are earned — from $5 to $9 per week, of ten hours a 
day. We pay mostly by the week. At the same kind of work 
our girls earn as much as men. The main part of their business 
being sewing, women are preferable at the same wages as men. 
In two days any ordinary person can learn to use a sewing 
machine; but to learn all parts of the business would require 
from two to three months' time. Girls receive a small compensa- 
tion while learning. They are never out of employment, except 
in hard times, like the past winter. Two thirds are American 
girls. The girls employed by us are intelligent and happy ; 
earning good wages, and always have work when we are doing 
anything. Board, $2.50." 

469. Chair Seaters. The putting of seats in chairs, 
the material being of cane, hickory, flags, willow, and corn husks, 
is carried on very often in orphan asylums, institutions for the 
blind, or for the deaf and dumb, and in penitentiaries. There is 
a large establishment in Worcester, Mass., where women are em- 
ployed. At the House of Refuge, on Randall's Island, I saw 
the boys seating chairs with rattan. It is learned in three months. 
It is very severe on the fingers at first. In a small second-hand 
furniture store, I saw a woman seating chairs with cane. I step- 
ped in and inquired of the woman how long it required to learn 
the work. She said she learned it in one day, of a German who 
kept a furniture store next door, and who wished her to work for 
him. She could seat two chairs in a day, and earn by doing so 
a dollar. For such a chair as she would be paid sixty-two cents 
the cane would cost twelve cents, leaving her a profit of fifty 
cents a chair for her work. It cuts the fingers some. She has 
most family work in winter; but her husband can always get 
enough for her from the stores. Another German woman seat- 
ing chairs said she could seat three in a day. She charged fifty 
cents apiece for ordinary chairs. At a chair-seating factory, I 
saw several girls caning chairs for the proprietor, who receives 
orders from stores. We were told that it is always piecework. 
Some girls earn from sixty to seventy-five cents a day. They 
have work all the year. The girls were very clean-looking. They 
stood while at work. A girl told us it would take but three 
weeks to learn., Work is most apt to be slack in January, Feb- 



CHINA MENDERS. Ml 

ruary, August, and September. The work is mostly done by 
German women. At another factory, I was told the prospect for 
work is very good. The man said, three years ago he had more 
work for his women than they could do. They are not paid 
while learning, and have work the same all the year. His best 
hands can earn $4 or $5 a week. The work is always paid for by 
the piece. The superintendent of the Monroe County Peniten- 
tiary, N. Y., writes : " We employ our female convicts at the 
manufacture of both flag and. cane chair seats. They are equally 
adapted to the employment of women ; the flag seats, however, 
cannot be made except near a chair manufactory, because of the 
expense of transporting the frames upon which they are made. 
The cane-seat frames can be easily transported ; but the market 
is overstocked, and has been for years. They are made in many 
Northern and more Eastern prisons, and are made by both sexes. 
At the Albany (N. Y.) Prison, the females are employed at cane- 
chair seating, and at some part of the manufacture of shoes. At 
the Erie County Penitentiary, Buffalo, N. Y., the female con- 
victs are employed at cane chair seating and packing hardware, 
manufactured by the male convicts ; and at the Onondago County 
Penitentiary, Syracuse, caning chair seats. New York, Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania, and Michigan are the only States, proba- 
bly, having county prisons, where the convicts are regularly em- 
ployed. Cane seating is a business employing many females (free 
labor) in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and is well adapted 
to girls and women of the lower grades of intelligence ; and the 
same is applicable to flag seating. They can earn, on an average, 
about thirty cents per day. The business may be acquired in a 
few days — say, thirty." The proprietor of the Oswego chair 
factory writes : "I have in my employ about forty women and 
girls in the cane-seating department. An attentive worker, pos- 
sessing ordinary skill, can earn about fifty cents per day, of ten 
hours. Young persons of either sex are much more sprightly at 
the work than older persons." By a chair manufacturer in Fitch- 
burg, Mass., several hundreds of women, girls, and children are 
employed in seating chairs, which they do at home. 

470. China Menders. All parts of this work are very 
suitable for women. Covering and repairing fans, mending 
china, wax dolls, works of virtu, &c., require care and taste. 
Connected with this might be the mending of jewelry, card cases, 
work boxes, and other ornaments of the toilet. A china mender 
told me he estimates his time at twenty-five cents an hour. His 
prices vary, according to the quality of the article, and the time 
and care required. He sells the composition for cementing at 
twenty-five cents a bottle. His work was beautifully done. I 
19* 



442 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

talked with another china mender and glass driller. After the 
fourth of July he goes to the country and mends ware. Some 
learn his business in a short time. He charges $10 to teach 
to make cement, drill, and mend articles. He thinks, in Boston, 
Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, there are probably openings. He 
says money can be made at the business by advertising, and hav- 
ing some one to go for the articles and collect the money. He 
is recommended by one customer to another, and so has enough 
to do ; yet, from the want of capital, barely makes a living. If he 
could get a place in a china store, ladies could get their china 
mended there, and the store would give him some. He majkes 
between thirty and forty kinds of cement- Some of them stand 
water. If a lady would learn, he would pay her $3 a week for her 
services. 

471. Cigar Makers. At F.'s, Philadelphia, we were 
told that girls who make cigars are usually idle ; but when we 
afterward saw the rapid motion of their fingers, we felt disposed 
to doubt the charge. Habits of order, temperance, industry, and 
the reverse y are said to run in some trades. P. had heard some 
employer lamenting that there is no such thing as a -sober reed- 
cutter. May not the flavor of tobacco, in making cigars, produce 
an excitement that craves some artificial stimulus ? We think it 
would not be strange if it did ,• but have no means of ascertain- 
ing, and hope that it does not. Bending over was the only item 
mentioned by F. as being uncomfortable or injurious in the work. 
" In Philadelphia, the whole number of employes, journeymen 
and girls, engaged in making cigars, is fully four thousand. The 
average labor expended upon each thousand cigars costs $3.50, 
and the average cost of each thousand cigars is $8." In Phila- 
delphia, many Americans work at the business ; but in New York, 
almost all are Germans. In Germany, many women imike cigars. 
A cigar maker told me that some women find the odor too strong; 
and even men with weak lungs are likely to have the consumption, 
if they work at it long. He pays women the same price as men, 
and he pays according to the quality and the workmanship — $2, 
S3, 14, $5, and $6 per thousand. Quickness in the use of the 
fingers is necessary. He has never known women to make the 
finest cigars. At K.'s, New York, I saw some bright, pleasant- 
looking girls at work. They are paid six cents a hundred. One 
girl told me she generally made thirteen hundred a day — seventy- 
eight cents. Women receive the same rates of wages as men. 
The son of the proprietor told me he had thought the work not 
altogether healthy ; for the men you see working at the business 
are pale and thin. His father's girls are kept busy all the year. 
Girls generally make from $3 to $4 a week. There are enough 



CIGAR MAKERS. 443 

of girls at it in New York, though there are but few places where 
girls are employed. The atmosphere almost stifled me, the to- 
bacco scent was so strong. I inquired of a girl if she thought it 
unhealthy. She said no — that when she first came there, her 
head ached ail the time, and she had constant nausea of the 
stomach ; but now she never notices the smell of the tobacco, 
and does not feel any bad effects. She said she had learned to 
make cigars in three weeks ; another girl said she learned it in 
one week. In summer, when the days are long, a girl earns most. 
A bundler is paid the best price, as she receives six cents a hun- 
dred. It is very dirty work. A cigar dealer told me he pays 
from $2 up to $6 per thousand. A man can make two hundred 
per day, and so earn from 40 cents to $1.20. He thinks it not 
unhealthy, where there is a circulation of air. The rapidity in 
making cigars depends much on the quality of the tobacco. 
Some leaves are not so well dried, nor so fine and perfect, as 
others. Such, of course, require a longer time to make. D., 
New York, says women mostly make the quality called sixes ; and 
he knows that, farther East, in making that kind they often earn 
$1 a day. They can make the common ones more rapidly than 
men. He attributes the inability of women to make fine cigars 
to the want of instruction. Men do not like to teach them, be- 
cause they are afraid of the competition that may be created, 
causing them to lose work or have to do it at lower wages. 
Now and then a woman may be found who makes cigars equal to 
any man. It requires a knowledge of tobacco, to select the dif- 
ferent kinds for the various grades. Some judgment and intel- 
ligence are needed to cut the leaf economically, and to select 
tobacco of proper strength for making various brands. It is 
usual for a boy to serve three years, who is paid about $30 a year, 
and boarded. He has boys fifteen years of age working for him 
as journeymen. He says cigar makers in New York earn from 
$6 to $15 per week. Good hands can usually find employment. 
It can easily be learned in one year. All seasons are favorable 
for the work. From. five hundred to fifteen hundred cigars are 
made in a day, according to the expertness of the manipulator 
and the kind of tobacco. Machines have not as yet been found 
to work well. The machine cigars are finished at the end by 
hand. He remarked that machines never can succeed so well as 
men, until they have the brains of men. A very nice widow, 
who kept a cigar store in New York, told me that many more 
women are employed in making cigars in Philadelphia than in 
New York ; but the cigars made and sold there are mostly of the 
cheap kind, selling for two or three cents apiece. Six months' 
practice is required by a learner, to become perfect. Careful 



444 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

and rapid movement of the fingers, and ability to use the left 
hand, are desirable. I would suggest that a few smart women 
learn of a competent workman to make the best quality, and in- 
struct several of their own sex. I find the making of cigars is 
paid for, altogether, by the thousand, and cigar makers earn from 
$3 to $18 a week. The usual price paid for a thousand cigars is 
$5, and a fast worker can make fifteen hundred a day. 

472. Cigar-End Finders. Mayhew says : " There are, 
strictly speaking, none who make a living by picking up the ends 
of cigars thrown away as useless by the smokers in the streets ; 
but there are very many who employ themselves, from time to 
time, in collecting them. How they are disposed of, is unknown ; 
but it is supposed that they are resold to some of the large manu- 
facturers of cigars, and go to form a component part of a new 
stock of the best Havanas. There are five persons, residing in 
different parts of London, who are known to purchase cigar ends. 
In Naples, the sale of cigar ends is a regular street traffic. In 
Paris, the ends thus collected are sold as cheap tobacco to the 
poor. In the low lodging-houses of London, the ends, when dried, 
are cut up and sold to such of their fellow lodgers as are anxious 
to enjoy their pipe at the cheapest possible rate." 

473. Cinder Gatherers. I saw some girls gathering 
cinders. They burn them at home, after washing them. One 
pailful lasts from one and a half to two days. The larger 
girls gather two pails a day, generally ; the smaller girls each 
gather one. 

474. Clear Starchers. The doing up of muslin, in large 
cities, has made for itself a separate calling. Where there is con- 
stant employment, it pays well. Mrs. N. charges from sixteen 
to twenty-five cents for doing up a set of muslin. She does most 
of the work herself, as she feels responsible for the way in which 
it is done, and would be afraid a stranger might tear or burn the 
muslin. When she has not enough to do, she fills up her time 
crocheting for the stores. I think the best locations must be in 
a part of the city where the best residences are. 

475. Clock IMCakers. The amount and variety of wooden 
clocks manufactured in this country are very great. The low price 
at which they sell, puts it in the power of almost every one to 
purchase. Clock-case and clock-movement making are two dis- 
tinct branches. Connecticut is the only State in which clock 
movements are made ; but there are many shops all over the 
North in which the cases are manufactured. In 1845, there were 
twenty establishments in New York city, in which the cases were 
made. " Wages of clock makers are poor. Women are occasion- 
ally employed in painting the cases of clocks, painting the dials, 



CORK ASSOHTERS AND SOLE STITCHEES. 445 

and making part of the movements." The New Haven Clock 
Company employ women to paint the glass tablets, and in letter- 
ing, or putting the figures on the dial, at which work they can 
earn from 90 cents to $1 per day, of ten hours. They also use 
quite a number in making trimmings, and the lighter part of the 
movements, at which they earn about seventy-five cents per day. 
All their work is done by the piece. The time necessary to learn 
depends much on the intelligence and aptness of the person. 
Manufacturers of clock dials in Farmington, Conn., write : " We 
employ twelve American women figuring clock dials. The spirit 
of turpentine used is unhealthy to some. They are paid by the 
piece, and average $2.50, with board. Men are not employed in the 
same department. It requires about four weeks to learn, and 
learners are furnished with board. The amount of employment 
in future is indefinite. Fall, winter, and spring are the best 
seasons for work ; but constant employment is given by us. 
Board, $2." 

476. Clothes-Pin Makers. A clothes-pin manufacturer 
in Vermont writes : " Women are employed in packing clothes 
pins, and are paid from 25 to 50 cents per day, usually working 
ten hours. Our women are Americans. The clothes-pin busi- 
ness should be carried on in a sparsely settled community, where 
timber can be obtained at cheap rates." 

477. Clothes Repairers. We have seen it suggested 
that shops for repairing, remodelling, and remaking ladies' clothes, 
would, in large cities, if conducted by competent persons, proba- 
bly yield a support. The mending of ladies 5 shoes, and mending 
second-hand ones to sell again, could employ the time of a number. 

478. Cork Assorters and Sole Stitchers. The prin- 
cipal use made of cork in this country is for bottle stoppers. It is 
also used in making cork soles for shoes. Cork is mostly imported 
from Spain, Portugal, and the south of France, in large blocks, 
and cut in the shapes wanted. A member of a large cork-cutting 
company at the East writes : " In Fiance, Spain, and Portugal, 
women are employed to a limited extent in cutting the smaller de- 
scription of corks, and a few are also employed in England, but 
not to any extent." He thinks the employment not suitable for 
women, and says none are employed in this country. But from 
the public reports of the city of his residence, I find women are 
employed as cork cutters in that city. At one establishment, we 
saw men at work cutting corks. There did not appear any ob- 
jection to women employing themselves in this trade. A good 
deal of practice is required. S., of New York, cuts by machine, 
and employs six girls to assort. He pays 50 cents a day, of ten 
hours. At another cork store, I was told they employ boys and 



44:6 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

girls to assort, who receive from $2 to $3 a week. The coverings 
of cork soles are put on by women with sewing machines. A 
good hand, we were told, can make eight dozen pairs a day, and is 
paid eighteen cents a dozen. I suppose it requires at least a day to 
cut out and baste on the covering of that number ; so the compen- 
sation is not as great as one might at first suppose. Some can 
baste five dozen a day, and could stitch from twelve to twenty 
dozen a day. Girls are paid 10 cents a dozen for basting, and 
6 cents per dozen for stitching them on machines. A cork-sole 
manufacturer in the upper part of the city, pays for basting 
covers on, 10 cents a dozen. Some women baste five or six dozen 
a day. It requires care and a little skill. If not properly done, 
it is almost impossible to stitch them correctly. He pays 6 cents 
a dozen for stitching, and an operator can stitch from twelve to 
twenty dozen a day. He has often sold two hundred dozen in a 
year. 

479. Daguerreotype Apparatus. In most large 
cities, daguerreotype apparatus is manufactured. A maker of 
daguerreotype cases and materials told me that his girls earn 
from 50 to 75 cents a day, the latter being the highest price ever 
paid. S., whose factory is in New Haven, employs about one hun- 
dred and fifty girls. It is piecework. The business is increasing, 
but still is so limited that it cannot furnish employment for a 
great many. No difficulty is found in getting hands, as there are 
a great many girls in New Haven. No factory in the South or 
West. New York is the depot for everything made in a limited 
quantity, and for everything new in style. G. Brothers have 
given work all the year until lately. It is piecework. Girls 
earn from $4 to $6 a week. It does not take a smart girl more 
than eight days to learn. The busy time commences in April. 
It is an increasing business. The foreman at A.'s factory said 
a nice, steady, cleanly girl, that has sufficient dignity to 
command respect, can always get work. One that is not very 
sensitive to ridicule, and independent in the performance of duty, 
will be sure to succeed in that establishment ; for so many learn- 
ers are taken in and need supervision, that such a one is sure to 
be prized. He has seventy -five girls. It requires but a week to 
learn, and the girl that instructs gets the profit of that week's 
labor. In some branches they stand, in some they sit. They 
are paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to $6 a week. Some of 
their girls learn bookbinding ; so, when there is much to do in that 
line, they find it difficult to get hands. The manufacture of 
daguerreotype apparatus is increasing ; so the prospect for learn- 
ers is good. Most of his hands have work all the year. He has 
found many work girls very trifling. (No wonder, with such train- 



FEATHER DRESSERS FLAG MAKERS. 447 

irjg, and so little encouragement to do right.) They have all 
their photograph pictures colored by ladies in New York, except 
the glass ones. It pays well, and is done at home. I think some 
lady would do well to learn to color the glass ones. No manu- 
factories West or South. A firm in Waterbury write : " We 
employ twelve women making daguerreotype mattings, &c. We 
prefer them, because men work better with a few women to work 
with them. We pay by the piece. They earn $3 per week, ten 
hours a day. They are paid the same as male labor in the same 
business. It requires one month to learn, Activity and 
common sense are all that is necessary for a learner. The 
majority are Americans, and pay for board $1.75 per week." 

480. Feather Dressers. Those that purify the feathers 
of beds, also renovate the hair and moss of mattresses. A gen- 
tleman told me he thought the business of a feather dresser too 
hard for a woman. Carrying bags of feathers, weighing them, 
assorting and filling other bags, he considered too heavy. Fea- 
thers are cleaned by steam. Some people, to renovate feathers, 
place them in the sun for a few days in summer, and then bake 
them. There is never any need of renovating feathers, if they 
are properly cured at first. 

481. Flag Makers. At A.'s, New York, the young 
man said it requires about a year to learn the business thoroughly. 
The hands employed in the house are paid by the week, and re- 
ceive $4. They work from half-past seven to six o'clock, having 
an hour at noon. Those working out of the house are paid by 
the piece. They do not always have enough of good hands. 
They do not require the girls to invent designs, but like to have 
them quick to understand and execute any particular device or 
new pattern. To sew well and rapidly are the principal qualifi- 
cations. He thinks about two hundred women are employed in 
this way in summer, but not more than fifty in winter. The 
sewing and embroidering are confined exclusively to females. The 
cutting is mostly done by those who carry on the business, 
whether men or women. Learners receive a compensation of $2 
per week while learning, after which they receive from $4 to $6 
per week. Some employers require their hands to spend six 
months at it as learners ; but any one that can sew neatly, and has 
taste, could as well make a flag, after it is cut out and basted, as 
a bedquilt. The most busy seasons are spring, summer, and fall. 
When employed by the week, the hours are ten. The business 
is pretty well filled. Probably the most flags are made for ves- 
sels, and the next most for military and other processions. A 
flag maker told me he employs some girls and women, paying from 
thirty-seven to fifty cents a day, of ten hours, to those working in 



448 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

his rooms. Those that work at home, often earn seventy-five 
cents, as they sew in the evening also, and are paid by the piece. 
He does all his cutting. He has most work to do in summer 
and in political campaigns. In winter, vessels are laid up, and 
consequently no flags are wanted for them. Most work is done 
in seaports. More is probably done in Boston than any other 
city. In Philadelphia, flag stitching is done by machines. He 
will not have it done so, because it will throw women out of em- 
ployment, and their pay is small enough at best. He takes those 
'that can sew, and pays from the first. He complains that most 
women are mere machines, and display no intelligence in their 
work. (Query : Whose fault is it ?) Mrs. McF. pays her girls 
$3 a week, of nine and a half hours. She employs eight now 
(January, 1861), but sixteen in summer. In summer she makes 
flags for vessels, but in winter she has made national flags. When 
she wants any intricate pattern prepared, she employs a regular 
designer, but cuts the goods herself. Ability to draw well is a 
great assistance to a flag maker. She does all her own cutting, 
even to the letters that are placed on her flags. Her forewoman 
sometimes assists in cutting the figures. She works some for a 
house in Mobile that sells flags. It requires taste and ingenuity 
to succeed, but a good sewer can soon do the mechanical part. 
She has been in the business nineteen years. We suppose there 
are some openings in the South for this business. 

482. Furniture Painters. F., who confines his busi- 
ness to the ornamenting of furniture, says it requires taste and a 
knowledge of colors. He thinks the Americans excel the Eu- 
ropeans in applying ornament to works of utility. He has a man 
of twenty -five that he employed when a boy in his store. He 
observed that he had such talents as would make him a good or- 
namental painter, so he gave him instruction. The first year he 
paid him $4 a week; the next, $6; and now he earns from $12 
to $20. The young man invents when F. has given him an idea 
of the style he wishes. A manufacturer of enamelled furniture 
said no women are employed in enamelling, to his knowledge ; 
that lifting and turning the furniture about would be too heavy 
for women. So it would ; but they might have a man to do 
that. Another one told us he did not know of any women 
employed in enamelling furniture ; but with a knowledge of paint- 
ing, they might be. Men often earn $20 a week at it. A manu- 
facturer of chairs told me that he pays ornamenters (men) from 
$9 to $18 a week, of ten hours a day. The men sit while painting 
them. A girl must have a natural taste for such work to suc- 
ceed. The coloring requires experience. The French and Ger- 
mans do most of it. It is piecework. A girl, no doubt, could 



GILDERS OF MIRROR FRAMES. 449 

get work, if she were competent. The Heywood Chair Company 
write : " We employ women to some extent in ornamenting chairs. 
The work is not considered especially unhealthy. We pay by the 
piece, and our women earn from $5 to $6 per week, averaging ten 
hours a day, the year round. There is no difference in the prices 
between the two sexes. Six months' apprenticeship is required, at 
$3 per week. Nimbleness, neatness, taste, and a true eye are 
needed in a worker. In ordinary times, there is no difference in 
the amount of work. We employ women, because they will do 
the same work better, faster, and cheaper than men. We would 
employ more, if they could perform other parts of the work. 
Women are inferior in strength to men, superior in manual dex- 
terity, neatness, and taste. All are Americans. We can hardly 
speak with confidence of any considerable opening for female la- 
bor in our business. Most of our work requires skilled mechan- 
ics, or hard, rough bone and muscle. We have for five or six 
years employed ail the females we could find room or work for, 
and can see no chance for any increase." According to the cen- 
sus of 1860, the number of hands employed in the New England, 
Middle, and Western States, in making furniture, were 21,953 
males and 1,880 females. 

483. Gilders of Mirror Frames. About the same ar- 
rangements are made with apprentices in this as in other trades. 
In the old country, women do as much of the work in all its 
branches as men ; but in this country, the custom of women work- 
ing in shops with men is not so common, and consequently some 
females that learned it in the old country will not engage in it, 
because of having to work with the men. I have been informed 
that in Dublin there are at least forty women employed in gilding 
— some in business for themselves. A good male worker earns 
$12 a week. Gilders calculate to make twenty cents an hour, 
the most usual price for good hands in all trades. In some trades 
men are paid twenty-five, some twenty, some eighteen, and in 
some but fifteen cents an hour. Gilders that manufacture frames 
for mirrors and artists, are most likely to have work all the 
year. In most shops there is a slack time just after New Year, 
and after the Fourth of July. It is a very close, confining busi- 
ness, in summer, while laying the gold leaf on, as it is so light it 
is apt to fly, and should be done in a close room. It is not at all 
unhealthy. Most of the work is done standing; but, I think, in 
gilding, women are permitted to sit. A German that sells orna- 
mental furniture, thinks women might do the gilding on furniture. 
G. employs a number of girls in gilding oval frames. They earn, 
on an average, from $1 to $4.50. It requires but a short time 



450 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

to learn the business. B. used to employ some for the same 
purpose, paying $4, §5, and $6 a week. I think this work 
preferable for women to most mechanical employments, and, no 
doubt, in a few years many will be so occupied. I was told by a 
gilder that women are employed, because they can be had cheaper 
than men, seldom, if ever, receiving over $5 a week, of ten hours 
a day ; and they have no knowledge of the business, except the 
one department in which they work. The frames are sold cheaply 
for photographs. There are no extensive gilders in the South or 
AVe^t, except one in Cincinnati, and one in Chicago. In the 
mirror and picture frame departments, there are now a great many 
stores that cut up the business of the large establishments, and 
the times are hard — so the business is dull. Not more than forty 
women in New York city are employed in gilding frames, and 
twenty of them are at G.'s. A gilder in New Hampshire writes : 
" It depends upon how much painted work there is in the same 
room whether the occupation is unhealthy. As far as my obser- 
vation goes, women are as good workers at this business as men." 
One in Massachusetts writes : " My wife sometimes does my gild- 
ing, which is no harder than sewing. The carver's daughter in 
Essex, near here, did all his gilding for ten years." Gilders in 
Boston write : " We emplo} r a girl to burnish, and pay from $3 to 
$5 per week, ten hours a day. Men get from 89 to $12. Fall 
and spring are the most busy seasons. Most of the cities north- 
east of Baltimore are good for this work. Board, $2 to $3." 

484. Globe Makers. H., manufacturer of school apparatus 
in Connecticut, writes : " From four to six women are employed 
by us, in the construction of globes and other articles. Some are 
paid by the piece, and some by the week, and earn from 83 to $5 
per week, ten hours a day. Women receive less than one half 
the wages of men. They do not perform the same kind of labor. 
Women are employed at the lighter w r ork, requiring less strength, 
but an even amount of skill. The abundance of the supply of 
labor prevents the increase of wages. Learners are paid, and it 
requires but a few weeks to succeed. A nicety of eye and read- 
iness of hand are necessary for a worker. The prospect of em- 
ployment is good, but limited. The winter is best for the work, 
but hands are occupied at all seasons. The employment is pleas- 
ant, and as well paid as any in this vicinity. Women are em- 
ployed in all parts of the work suitable for them. The work is 
best adapted to the Eastern States. All our employes are 
Americans, and live at home. Board here, $2 a week." 

485. Hobby Horse Finishers. In summer time, Mr. 
has children's carriages trimmed by women. They are paid 



HORSE COVERINGS. 451 

by the piece, and earn from $3 to 84 a week. At B.'s they are 
employed all the year. The horses and carriages could be paint- 
ed by women, and the manes, tails, saddles and bridles could be 
put on by them. At C.'s, one lady is employed for trimming 
children's carriages — $5 a week — ten hours a day. She sews by 
machine. C.'s busy season for children's carriages, is from Feb- 
ruary to November, and he employs his hands the rest of the 
time at hobby horses. He says there is one factory in Columbus, 
two in Chicago. He thinks there are good openings (1860) in 
Richmond and Petersburg, Va., for they sell many there. He 
thinks wrong must succumb to right — that there is no justice in 
withholding from women their proper compensation for labor, and 
the time will come when the prejudice will be done away that 
now exists on that subject. 

486. Horse Coverings. I was told, at a store in Philadel- 
phia, they pay twenty-five cents a piece for ordinary blankets and 
linens, and a woman can make from three to four a day. One^ 
on which was considerable chain stitching, the storekeeper paid 
$2 for making, and he thought a woman could make one in a day. 
A saddle and harness maker, New York, told me the prospect of 
getting such work is good. The wives of his workmen make his 
blankets, and can earn from $1 to 81.50 a day, as he pays thirty- 
seven cents a blanket. Another one told me his girls earn from 
$4 to $6 a week at such work ; and another rated the payments 
still higher, from §1.25 to 81.50 a day. At a large store on 
Broadway, I was told all the work is given to one woman, who 
employs other women to help her. Her workers can earn 84 a 
week, if industrious. They make horse linens and blankets, and 
rosettes for head ornaments. Netting for horses is made by hand, 
in a large establishment near New York. L. L. & Co. pay for 
the coarsest blankets twenty cents apiece, and a woman can 
make two a day. For some they pay as high as from $4 to 85. 
A very swift sewer could make one such in little over two days 
— consequently her day's wages would be $2. So the prices vary ac- 
cording to style. The chain stitch, so much used for ornamenting, 
is done by hand, because in that way the edges of the cloth can 
be more neatly and securely turned under. L. L. & Co. em- 
ploy ladies, who in their turn employ others. The coarse heavy 
blankets are generally lined, and the work is mostly clone by Irish 
women. They are most busy on blankets from June to January, 
and on linen from February 1st to May 1st. Linen covers are 
used on horses in stables, as flies annoy horses much where they 
are standing quiet. Out of doors, nets answer, because they are 
kept in motion by the horse. When busy, L. & L. employ about 
one hundred girls. The business is growing. The blankets are 



452 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

mostly used in the country. The manufacture of them is confined 
principally to New York and Boston. Those in the cities are 
different in style ; indeed, each city has its own style. Many are 
made in Chicago. The rosettes pay very well, but it requires a 
long time to become expert. One lady they employ earns occa- 
sionally $50 a week. Tassels are paid for by the piece, and girls 
can earn from $2 to $4. Tassel making requires some time to 
learn perfectly. Cloth goods are confined to seasons, and conse- 
quently occupations in which they are involved are confined to 
seasons. Styles of trimming are apt to change. A man who 
makes blankets for a large wholesale house, employs from one 
hundred to two hundred women. They earn from $3 to $7 a 
week. The stitching is done by machine, but the ornamental 
part by hand. Men do all the cutting. He has paid as high as 
$100 for one pattern of blankets and ornaments. There are no 
blankets made in the South or West, except here and there a sad- 
dler's wife will make a few. In Williamsburg, I saw a number 
of women in the basement of the employer's residence. They 
looked sad, and the rooms were small, damp, and filthy. The em- 
ployer told me most of his stitching is done by machine. Any- 
body that can sew tolerably well, and has strength, can do it. 
Women seldom, if ever, cut them out ; but I think they could. 
A manufacturer in Brooklyn writes : " We employ women for 
making horse clothing, who are paid by the piece, and earn from 
seventy-five cents to 81 per day. Spring and fall are the best 
seasons for work. We have no difficulty in procuring hands." 

487. House Painters. The tools of a painter cost but 
little. Women might be employed in glazing, and in painting the 
inside work of houses. Their ingenuity and taste might be suc- 
cessfully exercised in embellishing walls and ornamenting doors. 
The style for doors, called graining, would be particularly appro- 
priate. The business could be best carried on by men and wom- 
en in partnership, as the outdoor work is most suitable for men. 
An apprenticeship should be served of two or three years. The 
work would pay well. Most of it is done in spring. A woman 
would need to make some change in her style of dress. The 
Bloomer would probably be best — at any rate, hoops should be 
laid aside. The vocation presents a very good opening to women, 
who could best engage in it, at first, in towns and villages. 

488. Japanners. Japanning is one of the few arts that 
had its origin in a heathen country. It is now practised in all 
civilized countries. Many metal articles are japanned — as tea 
trays, candlesticks, &c. Wood is also japanned. In a late re- 
port of one of the schools of design in England, we observed on 
the list of female students the names of two japanners. Care, and 



JAPANNERS. 453 

ability to stand, are all that are required for success, to those do- 
ing the plain painting ; but some taste is required for ornamental 
japanning. There is a good prospect for employment, as the tin 
trade has been increasing rapidly in the last two years, and is 
likely to, as our country grows older, and depends less on other 
countries for a supply. California has created quite a demand in 
the last few years, and it is supplied mostly from New York. M., 
in New York, told us he and his partner employ some women to 
japan. They pay from $3 to $4 a week. They have one woman 
to do the ornamental work, painting flowers and gilding. To or- 
namental painters they pay from $10 to $15 a week. They had 
a man to whom they often paid $15 a week. Most of the men 
that have been employed in ornamental japanning have gone to 
painting clocks, which pays better. They sometimes find it diffi- 
cult to get hands — so if some women could take it up, they would 
be likely to find employment. The painters design as they paint, 
not using a pattern. Japanning of the heavy kind could not be 
done by women. The pieces are two heavy to lift. B., an orna- 
mental japanner, used to employ women to put on the pearl 
scraps, but now employs boys, because he can get them cheaper 
and take them as apprentices. He can send them on errands and 
make use of them in that way. He pays an apprentice $1.50 a 
week for one year, then increases at the rate of fifty cents a week 
the next year, and so on. B. thinks no women are employed at 
it. Women are employed at such work in Paris. Japanning, he 
thinks, is not unhealthy, although the ovens into which japanners 
must pass are often heated to 260°. The spirits of tar used in 
japanning renders it healthy, and consumptives go frequently into 
japanning furnaces, feeling that they are benefited by it. At a 
firm of japanners, the boy told me they employ an artist to come 
and paint for them. They once had a lady that painted landscapes 
and flowers on piano boards in oils. They were not baked in a fur- 
nace afterward, but the oil permitted to dry, as with a painting 
on canvas. S. used to employ women in making pearl piece- 
work, but it is not much used now. For painting clocks, not more 
than six cents a piece is paid for many. Men are so rapid that 
they can make money, but women could not earn more than $2.50 
a week. Some men earn $25 a week, and formerly even $35, at 
painting the finer clocks ; but there are now so many in the busi- 
ness that wages have fallen, though the business is increasing. At 
a tin manufactory in Williamsburg, I saw two girls employed in 
tying up goods, and seven girls employed in putting the first coat 
of paint on tin ware — grounding, it is called. They are paid from 
$1.25 up. One woman they have earns $6 a week. She is an 
English woman, and has been at the business nearly all her life. 



454: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

She is quick and skilful. A boy who paints flowers on tin ware, 
after the first coat is put on by the girls, gets $1 a day for his 
work. Japanning is done in England by women. Many women 
are employed through the country, in the Eastern States, in mak- 
ing tin canisters, &c, and some in japanning; but japanners carry 
their work into ovens, which he thought would be too hard for 
women. Yet he thinks doing so is not unhealthy. If the em- 
ployment is unhealthy, it arises from the evaporation of the tur- 
pentine in the paint. The unhealthiness of the common painter's 
business arises from the turpentine, in evaporating, carrying off 
with it white lead, but no white lead is employed on the tin ware. 
Girls are paid by the week. Men, for graining, a style resembling 
the graining of wood, and in fact being the same except on a dif- 
ferent material, received $2.50 per day. Male labor is twice or 
three times as high in their establishment, Why women are not 
better paid the man could not answer, but, like many other men 
with whom I have talked, thought it unjust they were not paid 
at the same rate as men. Their girls are employed all the year. 
They work ten hours a day. They were mostly Americans, and 
miserably dressed. The work soils their clothes greatly. They 
wore old skirts over their dresses to work in. I think some men 
and boys work in the same room with them. The fine work 
could be well done by them, if they would take time to learn it 
efficiently, for it requires taste, ingenuity, and delicacy of touch. 
At an ornamental japanner's, I was told it requires three or four 
years to learn the business well. A good workman earns from 
$12 to $18 a week. It is piecework. 

489. Knitters. The knitting done by machinery is not 
so soft, so warm, or so durable as that done by hand. It is al- 
most impossible to obtain ladies' hand-knit hose in cities. Gentle- 
men's are sometimes made by the Shakers, and bring a very high 
price. We have ni) doubt but some old ladies might even now 
find it profitable to knit to order, or supply some store where 
their goods would he brought forward and disposed of to those 
who can appreciate the difference between machine and hand knit- 
ting. The Germans are famous knitters. " The peasant women 
of the Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, &c, knit a great 
deal. They are seldom, if ever, without the materials for this 
occupation. On the way to and from market, and at other times, 
knitting forms their almost constant employment." A knitting 
machine has been invented in Seneca, N. Y., that is said to knit 
a perfect stocking in less than five minutes. Aikens's knitting 
machines are very popular. We have thought ladies would do 
well to try them, and devote themselves to making up hosiery. 
We doubt not but it would pay very well. The doth is knit in 



KNITTERS.- 455 

a straight piece, and another lady cuts it into shape and sews 
into the articles wanted. A machine has been invented by Mr. 
Aikens, also, for toeing and heeling socks. A manufacturer of 
knit goods writes : u We employ about twenty hands, one half 
of whom are girls. Their wages are from $3 to $5 per week, 
except when working by the piece. Those who run the knitting 
machines are paid by the piece, and earn from 75 cents to $1 per 
day. Males receive from $1 to $1.75 per day. The work done 
by them is generally harder, and such as females could not well do. 
To effectually superintend the knitting business would require at 
least five years. The part performed by females can be learned 
in six months. They are paid while learning, from $2.75 to $3 
per week. The business is overdone at present; although there 
is always a demand in our section of country for girls. They 
work regularly throughout the year, twelve hours in summer, ten 
in winter. It would be better for all parties to run their mills 
only ten hours per day, and thus tend to keep down the produc- 
tion, and so keep up the prices to a fair profit. Those tending 
sewing machines are generally married, or widows with children, 
and in general support their families. Their machines are re- 
paired by a foreman, but with a little practice they can learn 
to do it themselves. In other branches generally pursued by 
girls, they earn sufficient to dress well, but seldom accumulate. 
A location is preferred in some thickly settled place, on account 
of getting sewing done by hand, as all the goods are finished off 
by hand. After working twelve hours a day, they will be neces- 
sarily rather too much fatigued to go through any mental pro- 
cesses otherwise than reading a novel. If all the mills of all 
descriptions would work ten hours only, and establish evening 
schools, and request all to attend, it would greatly elevate them 
in the social scale. But selfishness rules, and where one manu- 
facturer would agree to this arrangement, two would not. Board, 
$1.50 per week, including washing." A hose manufacturer in 
Holderness writes : " We employ about sixty females in the mill. 
Work is given out to three hundred. Almost ail are American. 
Their wages are from $3 to $6 per week. The wages in the 
knitting department are not much less for women than men. 
Women learn the knitting so as to earn good pay in three months. 
Women are paid $2 per week for the first four weeks ; after that, 
by the piece. A learner should be steady and quick with her 
fingers. The employment is healthy, as the knitters sit only about 
half the time. We run all the year eleven hours a day. There 
is not female help enough. We are trying women where men 
have been employed. I think women are in some respects supe- 
rior workers to men." Manufacturers of seamless hosiery, in 



456 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Connecticut, write they " pay from $3 to $5 per week, eleven 
hours a day — that it requires from six to eight weeks to learn — 
that their hands have access to libraries ; and board is for men 
$3, for women $2." At Cohoes, N. Y., is a manufactory of 
shirts, drawers, &c. I have a letter from the company saying : 
" We employ two hundred and fifty women, and pay from 40 
cents to $1 per day. Some are paid by the piece, and some by 
the week. Men receive from 75 cents to $2.50 per day, of twelve 
hours. The reason why they obtain better wages is that they do 
work which women cannot do. (Query : Do not the women per- 
form work that men cannot do ?) Men are continually learning. 
Women can learn to perform certain work in a few days. The 
best qualifications are soundness of mind and body, activity, stead- 
iness^ quick perception, and a desire to make money. The busi- 
ness is increasing yearly. Occasionally, in the winter, the mills 
stop for a month. There is at present (October, I860) a surplus 
of labor. Board, $1.75 to $2." At L.'s knitting factory, in 
Brooklyn, the foreman told me there are six machines in opera- 
tion, each of which cost between $5,000 and $6,000. The arti- 
cles made by them are softer than any knitting done by 
machine I have seen ; but it may be owing to the quality of 
the wool : I cannot say. Those working at machines stand, the 
others sit. The machine operators receive from $1.50 to $3.50: 
those in the finishing room are paid by the piece, and earn from 
$2 to $5. A foreman superintends the work and puts the machin- 
ery in order. A woman of good abilities can learn in three months, 
if the factory is in a position to put her forward. From May to 
December is the best time for work. Double price is paid the 
hands for night work in busy times. They prefer American girls, 
because they are neater. A manufacturer of factory supplies, in 
Massachusetts, writes : " We employ thirty women in knitting loom 
harnesses. The work is not more unhealthy than any employ- 
ment that requires one to sit all the time. They are paid by the 
piece. The employment is sure so long as cotton manufacturing 
is good. The work is equally good all seasons. Board, $1.62 to 
$2.25 per week." The secretary of the Waterbury Knitting 
Company writes : " We employ one hundred hands, at from 50 
cents to $1 per day, working twelve hours in summer, ten in win- 
ter. Women are paid as well or better than men of the same 
age ; working by the piece, they are paid the same. The women 
are not thrown out of work at any season. Women are inferior 
in mechanical genius. We are obliged to keep a man to every 
fifteen women to overlook them. A woman will run a knitting 
machine for seven years, and never be able to straighten a needle, 
or knit the cloth slack or tight. A boy or man will learn to 



LACE BLEACHERS. 457 

oversee a whole room in half that time. Women cannot be made 
to think or act for themselves in the least thing, or in any case 
to rely on their own judgment. This is equally true of the stupid 
Irish, German, and English, and of the more acute Yankee. 
"Women are superior perhaps in good looks." S., of Enfield, 
N. H., has his daughter write : " I use three of Aikens's knitting 
machines, and other machinery for making yarn. The wool is 
first made into yarn and then knit into webbing, and marked for 
heeling and toeing. It is then divided into dozens, and distributed 

Do ■ / ■ 

around the country to be heeled and toed, in which branch we 
employ usually five hundred American women. We pay $1 a 
dozen for heeling and toeing ; for tending the machine, $2 per 
week, of eleven hours a day. Women are paid less, because they 
are not usually as strong as men, and therefore cannot do the 
same work, or, if the same kind, not so great an amount in a 
limited time. Men can be employed by paying them what they 
require, and as they are considered, or rather seem to consider 
themselves the c lords of creation,' they demand higher wages 
than women. In four weeks the females can perform their part 
without trouble. Learners receive their board. The prospect is 
good for the same number employed as at present. The summer 
season is the best for work. If at any time there is a want of 
work, it is in January and February." 

490- Lace Bleachers. Mrs. L. spent five years learn- 
ing the business in Paris. A girl that spent two years learning 
with her, is now doing well in the business in St. Louis. She pre- 
fers to take learners a week on trial. She charges from $1 to 
$1.50 a pair for curtains. The French are the most successful 
in that line. She often has thirty or more pair from a hotel and 
other large houses. One can make a good living at it. L. says 
the work is unhealthy, particularly while the vapor of the chemi- 
cals is warm. The curtains are not wrung out, but the water 
pressed out with the hands. The dirt, of course, is first washed 
out. It requires strength to handle the goods. Curtains are put 
on frames to dry, and women, he says, are not strong enough. It 
requires strength to get the extra starch out, as it is done by 
squeezing. It is surprising how many objections, as regards 
health and physical strength required, can be presented by selfish 
men, who do not wish women to engage in their occupations. 
None but those who have had occasion to test the matter would 
believe it possible that the majority of men are so selfish and un- 
just in this respect. Another man told me he does all the wash- 
ing and drying himself, because he is responsible for the goods, 
and is not willing to trust them to strangers. He charges $1 a 
20 



458 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

pair, except for a very large size. Different kinds of laces require 
different methods of washing and ironing. 

491. Lacquerers. Lacquering is warm work, and in 
summer is done in rooms the temperature of which is over 200°. 
M. thought women could be employed in burnishing, lacquering, 
polishing, and bronzing. Girls were at one time employed in 
lacquering gas fixtures on William street, New York ; but they 
were dismissed, because they did not prove steady and efficient 
workers. The process previous to lacquering, called dipping, is 
dirty work. It requires but a short time to learn to lacquer. 
F. told me that in France women do all the fine lacquering, and 
they do it much better than men can. They take it home with 
them to do ; and the same plan could be followed in this country, 
and probably will be before long. The finest lacquering, such as 
ormolu clocks, &c., is done with gold dust. The varnish must 
be put on evenly. It requires care and delicacy of touch. Most 
of the gas fixtures sold as brass are merely zinc gilded, and then 
lacquered — the bronzed part the same metal, bronzed. Zinc can 
be bought at six cents a pound — brass is thirty cents a pound. 
Mathematical instruments, daguerreotype cases, and gas fixtures 
are lacquered. A man earns from $8 to $10 a week, working ten 
hours a day. Lacquering, I was told, is not unhealthy, and a per- 
son can sit two or three feet from the fire while at work. A firm 
in New York, manufacturing gas fixtures, wrote to us as follows : 
" Lacquering is a suitable occupation for women ; but we do not 
employ them, because men are considered more reliable as to 
regularity of hours, and are more easily managed. Women can 
be made equally good lacquerers with the men ; but when em- 
ployed by us, some years since, we found, with few exceptions, 
that they produced inferior work, owing, as we think, to want of 
application. Women are employed in similar establishments to 
ours in England and, we learn, in Boston. The employment is 
not unhealthy. They are paid by the week in England. It 
requires from three to five years to learn the business. Steady 
application and a good eye for colors will make a goodlacquerer.' 3 

492. Life Preservers. K. employs two women to 
stitch his life preservers with a sewing machine, and pays the 
usual price of operatives. None are made South or West. 
(Would not New Orleans offer an opening ?) 

493. Lucifer Matches. This is a business that has 
been largely entered into in New York. The making and selling 
of matches have furnished employment for hundreds and thousands 
of boys and girls in all our large cities. The making of matches 
is a dangerous employment. Its unhealthy tendency (owing to 
the use of sulphur), and the long period of twelve, and even four- 



LUCIFER MATCHES. . 459 

teen hours' confinement, no doubt serve to account for the sad 
and woe-begone faces of the poor little operators. At a match 
factory where I stopped, girls are paid three cents a gross for 
cutting matches and filling boxes. Some can do as many as forty 
gross a day ; but very few can. It is best for girls to commence 
early in life, and most do so. Some girls earn as much as $5 to $6 
per week, if we may believe the proprietor's statement. Girls are 
paid for filling the frames in which they are to be dipped, sixty- 
two cents 100 frames, each frame containing 1,500 double, or 
3,000 single matches. The factory is open from seven in the 
morning to ten at night. The business for women and girls is not 
crowded. Most learners become discouraged and leave it, be- 
cause it is so long before they can become expert enough to earn 
fair wages. It is not as healthy, he says, as some occupations. I 
should think not, judging from his sallow face, and the pale, 
spiritless faces of all I have seen in the match factories. He buys 
bundles of sticks, ready to cut for matches, of those who make it 
a business to prepare them. They are cut by hand. He pays 
twenty-five cents a bunchy and a man can cut a bunch in five 
minutes. They never stop work, except in December and Jan- 
uary. A brisk hand can earn from $5 to $7 a week. They 
make from twenty to forty different kinds of matches, to suit all 
climates. At the store of this manufacturer, the bookkeeper told 
me that, if a person has a tooth extracted, the phosphorus will be 
absorbed by the jaw bone and cause it to decay, if the individual 
works in the factory before the gum is entirely well. A lady told 
me she knows a girl that earns $6 a week in a match factory. In 
H.'s factory, I saw small girls and boys putting matches in the 
frames to be dipped. They are paid sixty cents 100 frames, con- 
taining 1,500 double matches. They can seldom fill more than 
85 frames a day. They commence work at 6J in winter, and 
work until 8 ; in summer, they commence at 6, and work until 7^. 
They are not obliged to work all the time, as they are paid by the 
piece ; but with the exception of an hour at noon, which all have 
the privilege of taking, they no doubt work the full time. They 
were poor, dirty-looking children. In ' the room where the boxes 
were filled, large girls worked. Most match makers are Germans 
and Irish. A manufacturer told me that he now employs boys 
only — -that girls he found so wild he could not manage them. 
He says some of his girls used to earn $5 a week. He thinks 
none but strong, healthy persons should work at the business, as 
the fumes of sulphur are injurious. A manufacturer in Vermont 
writes : " Women are employed to pack matches. They are paid 
by the thousand, and their wages amount to fifty cents per day, 
of ten hours, after they get accustomed to it. Women's work in 



460 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

this department is lighter than men's — so will not yield as good 
wages. A learner will gain the trade in about six months. An 
increase of this business is not flattering. No difference in the 
seasons for work. Women are more nimble in the use of their 
fingers, and consequently succeed better in this kind of work." 

494. Mat Makers. Door mats are made of sea grass, 
corn husks, worsted, manilla, hemp, and cocoa-nut fibre. At the 
largest manufactory in the United States, I saw the process of 
making several kinds. No girls or women were employed. The 
superintendent told us it was too heavy work for women. In one 
establishment in Philadelphia, girls are employed as tenders, 
which is merely picking the substance to be woven — jute, hemp, 
or wool — into bunches of the right thickness, and handing to the 
weaver. Some of their mat weavers earn $14 a week — boys, from 
$1.50 to $3. Mats are sometimes made by women of osier, rushes, 
and straw 

495. Manufacturers of Musical Instruments. The 
manufacture of different musical instruments is engaged in as so 
many distinct branches of business. Musical instruments are 
usually classed as follows : 1. Wind instruments, of wood or 
metal. 2. Stringed instruments. 3. Keyed instruments. 4. In- 
struments of percussion. 5. Automatic instruments. 6. Miscel- 
laneous articles in connection with musical instruments. On 
wind instruments made of wood and ornamented with metals, as 
flutes, clarionets, &c, women might be employed to polish the 
metal. Those that are all metal, as horns, trumpets, &c, are 
polished in making, and could not well be divided into a separate 
branch of work. Of stringed instruments, the ornamental part, 
as painting, inlaying of pearl, &c, would be very pretty work for 
women of taste. The smaller strings could be covered by 
women. Of keyed instruments, some of the smaller and finer 
work would be very suitable for women. In instruments of per- 
cussion, the drum and tambourine are probably the only instru- 
ments presenting a field for woman's work. Of automatic 
instruments, mechanical organs are the only ones, I think, at 
which women do work. I cannot learn that women are employ- 
ed in making musical boxes, which are imported from Switzer- 
land, Germany, and France. Women are employed to some 
extent, in other countries, in the manufacture of musical instru- 
ments. Z. thinks the reason women are not employed in the manu- 
facture of musical instruments in this country is, that they do not 
understand the business. — 1. Wind Instruments. Women might 
polish the metal on flutes, and even paint the woodwork. I was told 
by a manufacturer in New York, whose factory is in Connecticut, 
that he once employed women in that way, but they did not sue- 



MANUFACTURER^ OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 461 

ceed, because they did not try. — 2. Stringed Instruments. I call- 
ed on L., engaged in the manufacture of l^arps. There are but two 
harp manufacturers in the United States. Ladies might do the 
gilding and ornamental painting on harps. Sizing is put on, 
and then gold leaf laid on, and smoothed down with a small 
brush. The varnishing could be very well done by women. The 
same kind of work is executed on guitar frames, of which a 
number are made in the United States. The painting is done 
as on enamelled furniture. L. employs an Englishman to do the 
gilding and ornamental painting. The other manufacturer, B., 
thinks there is no part of the work in making harps that could 
be done by a lady. The ornamental part is done by the var- 
nisher, and varnishing requires much strength. It requires a 
regular apprenticeship, and some artistic taste. So few harps are 
made in this country, that it would not pay a woman to learn. He 
was evidently opposed to women having anything to do with 
the business, — 3. Keyed Instruments. Accordions. In mak- 
ing accordions women could put on the keys and kid, and do so in 
Germany. Accordions are nearly all imported, because they can 
be made more cheaply in Europe than in this country. L., Phila- 
delphia, says he is in partnership with his brother in Germany, 
who has musical instruments made there, and employs a number 
of women and girls. — Melodeons. C, New York, manufacturer, 
say he does not know of any women being employed in the making 
of melodeons ; but much of the work, 1 am sure, could be done 
by women. Cutting the keys, polishing, gluing them on the 
board, and fastening the hammers on, are clone by hand, and the 
work is as suitable for women as men. Men receive for such work, 
$2 a day. Women properly trained, and with a good ear for 
music could also tune the instruments. Men who do so, earn 
about $3 a day. A manufacturer of melodeons writes : u We do 
not employ women, but think larger firms might." — Organs. I 
was told by a manufacturer that in Germany some women assist 
their husbands in making the action, but there is lighter work 
and more of it in piano actions. J., another organ builder, told 
me that in England, in some organ factories, women are employ- 
ed to gild the pipes. In making the organs turned by a crank, 
used in some churches in England, women, he said, are employed 
in putting the pins in the cylinders. They are made on the same 
principle as the music box. J. seldom makes more than one of 
these organs in a year, and I think he is the only one in the 
United States that does make them. Mrs. Dall says " there 
are women, who strain silk in fluting, across the old-fashioned 
workbag, or parlor organ front." 



462 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Pianos. In England, the men engaged in making piano 
actions used to do much of the work at home, and their 
wives and daughters would assist them. In the United States, 
each branch in the making of pianos is now done separately, ex- 
cept in very large establishments, and consequently most of the 
work is done at home by the workmen. At a factory in New York, an 
apprentice, nearly out of his time, told me that an individual to 
learn the business is bound, and must remain until of age. Other- 
wise he could not get a certificate, and is not likely to find em- 
ployment without one. An apprentice receives $8 a week the 
first year, $-1 the second year, and more afterward if he is bright 
and quick to learn. A journeyman receives from $10 to $12 a 
week for his work. At W.'s piano manufactory, New York, we 
were kindly permitted to pass through and see the entire process 
of making. Among other parts that I thought could be done by 
women, were those of varnishing and polishing. This work 
forms a separate branch of itself, and requires an apprentice- 
ship of three or four years. It looked to be very simple. The 
pianos are first rubbed with pumice stone, to render them 
smooth and susceptible of a polish, then with rotten stone. 
Rubbing with pumice stone all day might be too laborious, ex- 
cept for a very strong woman ; but the other process is feasible 
for any woman of moderate health. Indeed, the finest polish 
could be better given by women than men, because it is done by 
the naked hand, and the softer the hand the better. The orna- 
menting of the sounding boards could be done by women that 
know anything of painting, and also the gilding on the inside top 
and outside front. I asked an old Frenchman, doing that kind 
of work, how long it would require to learn. He said he had 
been at it fifty years, and had not learned it perfectly yet. . It is 
pretty work, and very suitable for a woman of taste. The del- 
icacy of woman's touch, with some knowledge of drawing and 
painting, would enable her to succeed. Covering wire, and put- 
ting it in, is another branch that might be done by women. 
Bleaching ivory for the keys, cutting them, and gluing them on, 
are also within woman's range. Cutting leather and buckskin, 
and gluing it on the hammers, are very light and simple work. 
Another branch suitable for women is regulating the tone of 
pianos. Men, said W., would oppose women working at the piano 
business in large establishments, but a man would not be likely 
to sutler inconvenience from employing women in his own house 
to do the part he carries -on. If he were independent of his busi- 
ness it would be better. At 's, New York, a manufacturer of 

pianoforte actions, I saw two girls at work. It is very nice, clean 
work. Part of the time they stand, and the remainder they sit. 



MUSICAL STRING MAKERS. 463 

One is paid $3 a week, and the other less. The young man who 
showed us through" the factory, said much of the work in mak- 
ing pianoforte action that is now done by men could be done by 
women. D — 's girls looked to be Americans. They have work 
all the year. It mostly consists in covering hammers. A man- 
ufacturer of pianofortes writes : " Our men are paid both by the 
piece and by the week, according to the departments in which 
they are engaged. The time of learning is from five to seven 
years for men. Apprentices (boys) are paid from 25 cents to $1 
per day, beginning with the first amount, and increasing from 
year to year. In some departments, physical strength is required, 
in others, aptness and ready tact — in others, a cultivated musical 
ear. The prospect for future employment is very fine in all 
branches for men — in some, equally good for women. The ma- 
jority of workmen are below mediocrity, as compared with most 
all others in manufacturing." A manufacturer in Meredith, 
N. H., writes : " We once employed a lady in our key and action 
department. She was the wife of one of our workmen. She 
earned as much as her husband, and in every respect did her work 
as well. She learned her trade in half the time it took her hus- 
band to learn the same. Theirs was jobwork; the two earned 
about $3 per day. She did her housework besides, I think 
there might be many ladies employed in our business, to the ad- 
vantage of ail concerned. We expect to test the matter further 
by employing some in our varnish rooms soon." 

Seraphines. A manufacturer writes : "I think women 
might be employed to advantage in some parts of the work, 
and in any part of it, if they could adopt a different style of 
dress, something like the Bloomer. The long dress with hoops, 
as now worn, must be an insurmountable barrier against their 
entering many employments. It is injurious to health, and pre- 
vents a proper development of form." 

496. Musical String Makers. The manufacture of 
strings for musical instruments is carried on as a separate branch. 
A German violin maker told me that women are employed in 
Germany in winding wire for guitar strings. I find they are 
also in a factory in Connecticut, and the manufacturer said they 
could earn as high as $9 a week. It is rather severe on the fin- 
gers, but that can be avoided to some extent by wearing a glove 
finger. In New York, it is mostly done by Germans and French, 
who have taken the trade from Americans. The preparing of 
catgut from the intestines of sheep and goats, and making it into 
strings, is carried on mostly in Germany, and some women are 
employed at that. Most metal strings are of steel, and covered 
with fine wire of other metals. Mrs. Z., whose husband, when 



464 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

living, manufactured covered strings for musical instruments, told 
me, she and her daughters had often assisted in covering guitar 
strings and the lighter piano strings. She thinks a person of 
good abilities could learn it in from two to four weeks, with au 
attentive instructor. She usually rested against a bench while 
employed. A good worker will earn from $3 to $5 per week. 
She has never heard of any but English and German women 
being engaged in it. In some of the up town shops the machin- 
ery is moved by steam, but it does not answer so well, because 
it is not so easily slackened or checked. Harp strings and the 
larger piano strings cannot be made by women, because of the 
strength and firmness required. 

497. Netters. Netting is now generally done by machin- 
ery. Seines are mostly made in that way. When by hand, it is 
done by old people, who receive a very inadequate compensation 
for their labor. The nets so much used for horses are mostly 
made in a large factory near the city of New York. In England, 
woollen netting is used by some gardeners for the protection of 
the bloom of fruit trees from frost. They are also used to pre- 
vent birds destroying currants, cherries, raspberries, and other 
small fruit. The making of purses of different kinds, and of 
hammocks, have employed a small number of people. Net and 
seine manufacturers in Gloucester write me : " We employ one 
hundred women who work at their homes, and are paid by the 
piece. It requires a year to learn. From October to June are 
the best seasons for our trade. A few that we employ to work 
by the week spend ten hours a day at it. The comfort of the 
occupation is good, but the pay poor. We think women better 
company than men. Health and strength are the best qualifi- 
cations for our work. A net and twine company in Boston 
write : " We employ women for converting twine into netting. It 
is mostly job work, and they have cash for what they earn. The 
comparative prices of men and women are the same as those of 
factories in general. It requires about as long to learn as it takes 
a woman to learn to knit stockings. The business is good as 
long as the sea furnishes fish and mankind eat them. The em- 
ployment of women in the work is a providential necessity. 
Nearly all ours are American. Women are quicker in their 
work — men stronger. Our women have the leisure that belongs 
to nearly all manual occupations." 

498. Oakum Pickers. Perhaps some one reading this 
book may not know what oakum is. It is old rope, pulled to 
pieces until it is soft and pliable, like the original material, and 
used for the purpose of corking vessels. Ten years ago, the pick- 
ing was done by hand, and many women employed. Now, this 



PAPER HANGERS RAG CUTTERS. 465 

work is mostly done by machinery in this country, and very few 
women are employed. In some factories, women are employed 
in teazing, that is, untwisting the pieces of rope that are not 
pulled to pieces by passing through the machinery the first time. 
They are paid so much per hundred pounds, and do not earn 
more than $2 a week. It is dirty, disagreeable work. A firm in 
Maine write : " We have seen females, both young and old, at 
work in oakum mills in the State of New Jersey. In England 
(we believe) all oakum is made in their almshouses, consequently 
a part by females. The business is healthy. We use many boys 
that do work which might be done by females ; but we prefer the 
boys." 

499. Paper Hangers. An English lady, who has spent 
much time in various parts of Europe, told me she had known of 
women being engaged in paper hanging in small towns. I believe 
it is customary, when papering a room, to have one person put the 
paste on, and another put it up. We are confident women could 
do the first-mentioned part of the work. 

500. Polishers, Women are employed in France in pol- 
ishing furniture. They are mostly the wives of cabinet makers. 
It requires art to do it that some can never learn. A person 
must be able to put the gum shellac on evenly. A woman in 
London earned a very good living by applying French polish to 
the furniture of cabinet makers. A French woman that polished 
furniture in Paris, told me that the work is hard on the fingers, 
and one could not learn it in less than a year. A piano manufac- 
turer told me that women could be profitably employed in polishing 
pianos. It is better learned by women than men, he thought. It 
is tedious, however, and requires patience. I have been told that 
the finest polish is imparted to furniture by the naked hand, and 
the softer and finer the hand the better. For that reason, women 
are employed in France to polish piano cases with the palms of 
their hands, and, when not employed, wear kid gloves to keep their 
hands soft and smooth. 

501. Pure Finders. The finders of dog pure constitute a 
small class in this country ; but Mr. Mayhew thinks in the city 
of London there are between two hundred and three hundred 
constantly employed. It is used for dressing leather and kid, 
and sold at from sixteen to twenty cents a bucketful. In our 
country, it is probably carried on with bone grubbing and rag 
gathering. 

502. Rag Cutters. I find nearly all rag cutters are 
Irish, and they are mostly old women or young girls. The girls 
usually earn about 75 cents or $1 a week. I called at a rag 
dealer's, and was told by a woman that one cent a pound is paid 

20* 



406 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

for cutting the seams off, taking the linings out, and removing the 
buttons. A woman can earn, she says, from $2 to $2.50 a week. 
It is not unhealthy. They grow fat on it. Theirs are mostly 
old women, and all are Irish. For assorting they are paid by the 
week, and receive $2.75. They work from seven to five in winter ; 
in summer, ten hours. The keeper of the wareroom sells his rags 
for making paper, and sends many to Europe. The women work 
all the year. No other kind of work could be done by women in 
that business, as the only other is packing in bales, and that, of 
course, must be done by men. The warerooms close at six ; so the 
women have the evenings for themselves. P., a rag dealer, says 
he buys and sells according to the quality of the rags. It is cus- 
tomary to pay by the week for sorting rags. Some get $2, and 
some $2.50. Cutting the seams off is paid for by the pound. 
The odor was extremely offensive (it was a damp day) ; but the 
man said it was not unhealthy, unless the rags are worked with in 
a close room ; then the dust is apt to affect the eyes. Occasion- 
ally the small pox is taken from rags. I called at a rag dealer's, 
and was told by a filthy, squalid, barefooted girl at work, that for 
cutting up rags a penny a pound is paid. She was assorting. 
For that work, hands are paid twenty-five cents a day, and their 
board. It is very dirty work. The dust and sand must affect the 
eyes and lungs. Some men cau cut as many as thirty-five pounds 
a day. Men are paid twice as much as women for assorting. I 
inquired why. I was told by a young junk dealer, standing by, 
that they could pick twice as much in the same time, the truth 
of which the reader can decide as well as I. Some men earn at 
it, he said, $3 a week. A woman, who seemed to have some in- 
terest in the place, remarked the girls have work all the year. 
Called at the door of a large wareroom, where I saw men assorting 
waste paper to be sold for the purpose of being made into new paper. 
503. Rag G-atherers. The chiffoniers or rag gatherers 
of Paris are said to number about 6,000 ; those of London about 
800 or 1,000. The chiffonier in Paris can collect only from 
eight in the evening until early next morning, as the streets are 
all swept before six o'clock in the morning, as after that time un- 
til eight in the evening the citizens are passing. A few in Paris 
have realized fortunes ; but we suspect the most, in all countries, 
barely gain a subsistence. They all lead a hard and gloomy life. 
In the United States, most of the rags collected are converted 
into paper. Some are sold at shoddy manufactories, and those 
unfit for either shoddy or paper are spread over corn land, or 
used as a fertilizer for hops. One of the most handsome build- 
ings on Broadway is said to be owned by a man that commenced 
life in the petty business of a rag collector. So much for econ- 



RAG GATHERERS. 467 

omy and industry ! Most of the rag pickers in New York live in 
the Five Points, and near the Central Park. Scarcely any per- 
son that has seen the old women rag pickers of New York in 
rain and snow, cold and driving winds, partially clad, can ever 
deny that a woman is capable of very hard and degrading labor, 
when driven to it by want. Rag picking and rag assorting are 
distinct branches. Rag pickers make the most, and are chiefly 
Germans. The number of rag gatherers in New York is very 
great, and the majority of them are women. I never observe the 
face of an American or French woman. Rag gatherers have 
each their own province, and none of the rest dare intrude. The 
majority do not confine themselves to picking up rags only, but 
bones and bits of metal and glass. Some even carry a basket in 
which they gather waste vegetables or putrid meat, or the trim- 
mings of uncooked meat, which they feed on themselves, or 
give to a pet pig, or trade with some neighbor better off 
that has a cow. When the rag collectors reach their homes, 
they assort the articles they have collected. They separate 
the rags into clean and dirty (the last they wash), into linen and 
woollen, and the paper into clean and dirty, white and colored. 
The life led by rag gatherers is very laborious, as they must 
spend all the hours of daylight on their feet, walking many miles. 
Their earnings are so scanty that they must be out in all kinds 
of weather. The enormous rent they pay for wretched accommo- 
dations is a disgrace to the landlords. Many of them sleep a 
dozen in a room, on the bare floor. By the most rigid economy 
and unremitting industry, a few are enabled to lay by a small sum 
for old age, or purchase a little cottage and a plot of ground, 
when they change their filthy occupation for a more healthy and 
agreeable one, that of raising vegetables for the market. If I 
had to make a living on the streets of New York, I would prefer 
carrying a wheel around to grind knives and scissors, or putting 
window-glass in, to collecting rags, for the work of neither is so 
filthy. The children of rag gatherers begin very early to follow 
the pursuit of their parents. I saw some children one day 
picking rags, that told me they received two cents a pound. 
They were at the dirt heaps where carts of dirt from town 
had been emptied. They sometimes gather forty pounds each a 
day. They cannot do so well in winter. I saw a rag collector 
who starts at five in the morning, and is gathering rags until 
eight in the evening. She eats nothing during the time. She 
was German. Her father and mother also gather rags. Her fa- 
ther sells them at two cents a pound. She did not know how many 
pounds she gathered, but said she got three large bags full every 
day in good weather. I saw other collectors, who told me they 



468 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

gather each from ten to thirty pounds a day. Some families suc- 
ceed in gathering from fifty cents' to $1.50 worth a day, in good 
weather and good seasons. " The prices paid for the staple arti- 
cles of their trade, purchased exclusively by middlemen, are : 
bones, 36 cents per bushel ; rags, whether linen or woollen, $1 
per cwt. ; paper, $1 per cwt. p and these sell them again to the 
down-town customers, the rags at $2.50 to $3.50 ; the paper at 
$1.25 to $1.50 ; with a proportionate advance on bones, and all 
the articles in the junk business." 

504. Rope and Twine Makers. Eopes are made 
of the fibres of various plants, and particular kinds of grasses, 
and the fibres of the cocoanut cover. Hair from the manes and 
tails of horses is also used. Hemp and flax are most common in 
the United States. The simplest mode of making rope is under 
long sheds. After the material is spun into yarn, it is doubled 
or trebled, and twisted. Iiopes for the rigging of vessels employ 
a large number of men. The great variety and amount of cord- 
age used make it an extensive trade. Eopes are now manufac- 
tured in some places by steam. A small number of women are 
employed in rope making. S. & M., Philadelphia, employ about 
fifty female hands. Some are engaged in spinning, and a dex- 
terous woman will keep from forty to fifty spindles in constant 
motion, some at carding, some at balling. The last-named oper- 
ation is the only one in which the women can sit while at 
work. They work ten hours, and earn from $1.50 (for young 
girls), to $5 a week (for the experienced frame spinners). The 
last mentioned are mostly English, Scotch, or Irish women, 
who have followed the trade from childhood. It requires long 
practice to command the highest wages. A good steady hand is 
much valued, and is not liable to be thrown out of work. Water 
power is used with the machinery. W., New York, employs 
them in his manufactory for spooling only. A manufacturer on 
Long Island writes : " I pay my hands $1 a week, for the first 
four weeks ; then $1.50 a week, for the next four weeks ; and 
for the four weeks following, $2 per week ; and so increase their 
wages till I allow them $3.50 per week. I employ mostly boys 
and girls. I pay them the same, regardless of sex. They work 
from ten to twelve hours, and are employed all the year. Board, 
$1.25 to $1,50 per week. At eighteen, my boys learn a trade. 
I pay my hands well and use them well. I do not receive children 
under twelve years of age. I encourage them in going to school 
before and after they work in my factory." There are only two 
factories of this kind in New York city that employ women. The 
proprietor of the largest gave me the following items : " I em- 
ploy thirteen girls and women (mostly Irish) in spooling, twist- 



ROPE AND TWINE MAKERS. 469 

ing, &c. Most are paid by the week. Women receive $3.50; 
girls, from $1.15 to $3.50. The time of learning is one, two, or 
three weeks, according to the kind of work, and the ability of the 
girl. The prospect is poor for more learners. My girls work ten 
hours a day, and have employment the year round. There are 
enough of hands in New York. Pome of the minor parts could 
be performed by women, that are not, but not enough to give 
many employment. Cities are the best for selling the article, 
country the best for making. Men do not perform the saoae 
kind of work women do. Women are best suited to their 
branches. Boys could be got to do the work of the girls for as 
low wages. Indeed, most boys work for less in New York than 
girls." We think the last assertion a mistake on the part of H. 
The agent of the Royal River Yarn and Twine Company writes : 
" We consider our employment healthy. It proves so. Take, 
for instance, a certain number, at random, of different ages, em- 
ployed in cotton mills, and compare with the same number, taken 
in the same way, from farm neighborhoods, and you will find 
more sickness and death among farmers' daughters." (This is 
rather a startling statement, but we are not prepared to disprove 
it.) He adds : " The regularity in exercise, taking meals, and 
resting, accounts, I think, for the steady employment in cotton 
mills, and the like, being so conducive to health. I have been 
engaged as a machinist, &c, about a cotton mill, for thirty-five 
years; and, according to my observation, more girls improve 
their health, taking ordinary care of themselves, than otherwise. 
Part of our hands are paid by the week, and part by the piece. 
They have from $2 to $4.50 per week, new hands having only $2. 
It takes from three months to two years to learn. Common 
sense and industrious habits are the only qualifications needed. 
Spring and summer are the best seasons, but work is furnished 
continuously the year round. Our girls go home now and then 
to spend a few weeks, visit, fix their clothing, &c. To shorten 
their time would be rather a disadvantage, as capital invested 
must pay, or no encouragement would be given to invest more. 
Demand for hands is steady ; and if a surplus, it is on the neat- 
est and lightest kind of work. Women are neater, steadier, and 
more active than men. Our girls make the best of housewives. 
Overseers, agents, and business men marry them, and we may 
look around and see, in some that have worked in mills, the 
brightest and best mothers of the land. The faculties of the 
mind are quickened by the busy hum and movement of machin- 
ery. Board, $1 50, respectable and comfortable. Parties not 
regarding that, would not have respectable help." 



470 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

505. Sail and Awning Makers. I think it would 
require considerable strength and long practice to make sails, but 
not more than some occupations in which women are engaged. L. 
sometimes employs women to run the binding on awnings, paying 
2 and 2-J cents a yard. He thinks no women are employed in 
the United States in making sails. They worked at tents during 
the Mexican war, but now only men are employed. S. knows 
that, in France, women make the lightest kind of sails. In Rus- 
sia, sails are made by women. A sail maker in a large maritime 
city writes : " Some women are employed in sail making in Massa- 
chusetts. It is a healthy trade, and men spend three years learn- 
ing it. A sail maker needs a tough constitution and steady habits. 
Some parts of the work are suitable for women. The best loca- 
tions are on the lakes or in seaport towns." An awning manu- 
facturer told me he employs girls in summer, and pays from $4 
to $5 a week, of ten hours a day. They work by hand, and bind 
and put on fringe. T. employs some girls for binding. They 
can earn from 83 to $4 a week when constantly employed. He 
usually pays by the week, and has it done in his shop. A sail 
maker in Connecticut writes : M Women are employed at sail 
making in France. A knowledge of arithmetic and draughting 
are essential. The work is done at all seasons. The occupation 
is filled. It is usual to spend four years as an apprentice. The 
best locations are in seaports or river towns. I think the occu- 
pation is too laborious for women." 

506. Shoe-Peg Makers. A shoe-peg manufacturing as- 
sociation, in New Hampshire, furnish me a report of the work 
they have done by women, as follows : " Women are employed 
only to feed the machine with prepared blocks, and sorting pegs 
after they are split. The work is light, and well adapted to the 
physical capacity of girls and women. They can do the work just 
as well as young men and boys, and perhaps a little quicker. 
Wages are perhaps two thirds as much as that of men in the same 
branches. Two hundred women would do all the work, in their 
several departments, in the business, for the whole of North and 
South America. We employ sixteen in our mill, at $3.50 per 
week, including board, which is called about $1.75. Men are not 
employed in the same branches. A part could be learned in one 
month — nearly half of it would require from six to twelve months. 
Girls are paid $3 a week, while learning. Nothing needed but 
ready and quick application. They work eleven hours. Each 
hour less would be more than a private loss. All are Ameri- 
cans." 

507. Shroud Makers. There is something repulsive in 
death — the shroud — the cap — the coffin — the sunken eyes — the 



SIGN PAINTERS. 471 

still hands and ghastly face. Death is fearful, even in its mildest 
forms. And yet how we yearn for rest — how we long for quiet ! 
How we pant for that glorious freedom from anxiety and care 
that awaits the just in heaven ! The change of the chrysalis to 
the butterfly, of the seed to the plant, of the earth beneath our 
feet, and the heavens above — the very consciousness within us, all 
proclaim unmistakably the truth that the spirit will not die — that 
it is immortal. There are duties connected with the house of 
mourning that afflicted friends and relatives have not the heart to 
perform. These, therefore, devolve upon persons interested in 
the dead, or hired attendants. Closing the eyes, washing the 
body, making the shroud and putting it on, are in some cases per- 
formed by the hired nurse, but generally making the shroud is 
done by the undertaker's wife. Some undertakers keep shrouds 
in their shops ready for sale. In large cities, an undertaker's wife 
is in many cases sent for by the nurse, to assist in laying out the 
dead, and receives, as a compensation, from $3 to $5. The wife 
of an undertaker told me that she lines the coffins for her hus- 
band. They buy their caps already made, of an old lady who 

brings them around. Mr. , an undertaker, is always willing to 

dress the remains of any but those who have died of small pox. He 
charges $3 to wash and dress a corpse, $5 with shaving. An 
undertaker told me he knew women could be employed in plait- 
ing the folds of silk in coffins, and making coffin pillows. The 
wholesale trade send away large quantities of shrouds and caps, 
and so have many made up. A man in Newark, who devotes 
himself exclusively to making shrouds, employs several women. 
In England, some undertakers employ women to make up mourn- 
ing suits. 

508. Sign Painters. Sign painting requires a long, 
steady, and regular apprenticeship. It requires also a correct 
eye and a steady hand. In large cities, sign and ornamental 
painting can be made a distinct branch of painting; but in a town 
or village it is combined with carriage or house painting, as one 
individual seldom has enough sign and ornamental painting to 
keep him constantly occupied. It is not more necessary for a 
painter to know how to mix the paints, and use judgment and 
taste in the selection of colors, than to form letters according to 
geometrical proportions. A painter must measure, more by the 
eye than a rule, the size and arrangement of letters in a given 
space. Good painters receive $3, $4, and $5 a day for their work, 
but generally are paid by the piece. When paid by the week, 
and they work regularly, they receive from $12 to $15 a week. 
Mrs. K., New York, says in Dublin there are many families that 
devote themselves to sign painting, but she knows of none in this 



472 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

country except her own. She employs a man to grind paints, put 
up signs, &c, — also to paint out-of-door signs, that is, such as 
must be painted on the building. Her two daughters paint all 
the signs that are to be put up. Some of the large signs above 
stores in New York have been painted by them. They are paid 
as good prices as men. She thinks an individual should com- 
mence early to learn. Her daughters received their instruction 
and advice from their father. In that way they acquired matur- 
ity of judgment and nicety of hand. Judgment needs to be ex- 
ercised in regard to size and space, and artistic taste in ornament- 
ing. A sign painter told me that superior workers can earn from 
$3 to $15 a day, if they have sufficient employment. Many 
house and other painters, in cities, profess to paint signs, but in 
reality have it done. Germans do much of it in New York, be- 
cause they do it cheaply, but many of them do not execute their 
work well. It is customary to have an apprentice three years, 
and pay the usual terms, §2.50 a week, the first year. A boy, dur- 
ing the first year, mostly grinds paints, goes errands, &c. Spring 
is the most busy season. Painting in oils is not neat work. A sign 
and carriage painter writes me : " The work is unhealthy on ac- 
count of the poisonous vapors and dust. It requires two or three 
years to learn, and one must have a great deal of practice. A 
common education, natural taste, and a correct eye are the quali- 
fications needed. Many parts of it are very easy and pleasant. 
Some parts might be done by women." The business pays best 
in large towns and cities. An ornamental painter writes me : 
" Women are employed in sign. painting in England, France, Ger- 
many, and Belgium. The time required to learn would depend 
on the taste or genius of the individual. The qualifications re- 
quisite are those of an artist in a less degree." B., an emblema- 
tic sign painter, thinks the employment very suitable for females, 
but supposes there are better openings in other cities than New 
York. It requires two or three years to learn all the different 
branches well. During the first year a learner could not support 
herself, but after that could, if she had a taste for it, was indus- 
trious, and received enough orders to keep her busy. 

509. Snuff Packers. At a snuff factory, I saw two 
women putting up snuff. The women color the bladders for hold- 
ing snuff, in tobacco water, pack, cap, label, varnish, and wrap 
them. They are weighed after being packed, and women are 
paid at the rate of one cent a pound. Women always stand in 
packing. They can earn from $5 to $6 a week, and have work 
all the year. The woman with whom we conversed was a sensible 
American, who told us her health had failed greatly during the 
nine years she had worked in snuff. While working in the snuff, 



TOBACCO STRIPPERS. 473 

women wear caps, but are so covered with it that they might be 
mistaken for bags of snuff. Of course, a great deal is inhaled. 
Both the women I saw complained of difficulty in breathing, par- 
ticularly when they lie down at night. One said, when suffering 
great oppression she would vomit, and throw up snuff as fresh in 
taste and smell as before it was inhaled. For packing snuff in 
jars, they are paid by the week, $4.50, and, for putting it in bot- 
tles still less. Men are mostly employed in packing snuff. 

510. Stencil Makers. A stencil-plate maker told me 
that cutting the plates could be done by women, but it would re- 
quire a strong, stout woman to hammer the plates after they are 
cool. In learning, a boy receives $2 a week. There are very 
few stencil cutters in the South and West. People send North 
for their plates, or get them cut by travelling peddlers, who are 
not allowed now in the South. The price of stencil plates has 
fallen very greatly. Such as would have sold for $5 a few years 
ago, can now be had for fifty cents. I saw a lady who cut stencil 
plates. She wanted an agent to sell her plates and ink. 

511. Street Sweepers. The girls seen in New York 
sweeping the crossings in winter, are not paid by the city, but re- 
ceive, now and then, from a passer by, a penny for their labor. 
If enough of strong men were employed by the city, and properly 
paid, it would serve to diminish the $13,000,000 annually spent 
in New York for preventable sickness, where thirty-one die every 
day more than in Philadelphia, while its natural advantages are 
greater. In Paris, women are employed as street sweepers. 

512. Tip Gilders. Most hats and caps are made in New 
York city. There are six establishments in the city devoted to 
tip gilding, and morocco cutting and rolling, and four girls, on an 
average, in each. The girls put the sizing and gold leaf en, and, 
when the impression is made, brush the loose gold leaf off. A 
man in the business told me he sometimes finds it difficult 
to get a good hand, and always prefers to teach a girl. He 
pays from 12 to §6 a week. The men cut the morocco for lin- 
ings, and girls roll down the edge by running it through a small 
machine. 

513. Tobacco Strippers. In tobacco factories, women 
are generally employed to strip the leaves from the stems. 
Smoking tobacco is cut in machines, and put in papers of differ- 
ent sizes. But little chewing tobacco is prepared in the Southern 
and Western States, though some factories have commenced it in 
the West during the last few years. Some leaf tobacco is put up 
in the South by slaves. In the West it is difficult to get hands, 
but in New York there is a surplus, though they are the very 
dregs of society. A. told me the women he employs are mostly 



474: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

Irish, and of low origin. They are generally old women, not fit 
for much else, and they are quite as poorly paid as in any other 
branch of labor. The part done by women is not unhealthy, 
though some of the parts done by men in close rooms are thought 
to be unhealthy. H. pays by the pound for stripping, and the 
girls earn from $2 to $4 a week. They sit while at work. In 
packing they stand, because they can do more. He employs his 
hands all the year. For packing tobacco in papers and boxes the 
girls are paid by the paper, and earn about the same as the strip- 
pers. The work is dirty, and the hands change their clothes 
when they come and go. It requires some time to acquire expert- 
ness. H. considers tobacco very healthy, if not taken inwardly 
to excess. He says tobacco workers never have fevers, (?) I 
went through Gr.'s factory. I never saw females engaged in such 
degrading work, and so uncomfortably situated, in all my life. 
It is far worse than rag picking. A tier of bunks (two on a side), 
in dark, narrow rooms, the centre filled with hogsheads of tobacco, 
a hatchway, and machinery made up the furniture of the place. 
The air was so close and strong, that I was almost stifled during 
the short time I spent there. The floor was covered with filth 
and waste tobacco. In the lower bunks, in one room, it was with 
difficulty I could discover the features of the old women and ne- 
glected children, at work. A forewoman had the superintendence, 
who assisted the workers in weighing the tobacco, and keeping 
an account of the amount given each. They were mostly Irish. 
It is very filthy, disagreeable work. Their tobacco strippers are 
paid fifty cents one hundred pounds. They strip from twenty to 
fifty pounds a day, earning from $1 to $3 a week. The majority 
have no homes, but hire lodgings at thirty-seven cents a week, 
and buy something to eat. They work from seven to half past five 
or six, having half an hour at noon. At C.'s, the rooms were not so 
dark, cramped, and uncomfortable as at Gr.'s. They employ seven- 
ty-five women and children. The forewoman told me that a smart 
hand, working in good leaf, and having constant employment, can 
earn from $3 to $5 a week. They are paid two cents for three 
pounds. The packers, if active and skilful, can earn more. At 
a place on Greenwich street, they pay thii^-five cents per hun- 
dred pounds for stripping, and a woman may earn from $1 to $4 
a week at it. At packing they can earn from $3 to $6. At L.'s, 
they employ one hundred and twenty-five girls and women. At 
packing their girls can earn from $4.25 to $9 a week, working 
only in daylight. Strippers can earn from $1.50 to $3.50, and 
are mostly old widow women with children. The foreman thinks 
it most healthy for packers to stand, as they are thereby saved 
from stooping. He tries to get the best class of girls he can, but 



TOY MAKERS. 475 

he finds it impossible to secure the services of American girls. I 
am glad American girls object to working in the filthy weed. 
The girls at L.'s have employment all the year. M. pays forty 
cents per hundred pounds for stripping. His strippers earn from 
thirty to forty cents a day. Some packers are able to earn $1 a 
day. They have work all the year. Tobacconists in Albany 
write : " We employ women in papering tobacco, and pay by the 
dozen, the hands earning from $3 to $5 per week. They work 
ten hours a day, the year through." A tobacconist in Hartford 
" pays his women by the week, $3.50, for stripping tobacco. They 
work ten hours a day. It requires but a few weeks to learn the 
work done by women." B — 's, of Boston, write : " We always have 
employment for women, in stripping and papering tobacco, and 
other light work. They are employed, also, in making cigars. 
By some physicians the work is considered healthy. We pay by 
the week, from $3 to $5, working ten hours a day. The men 
who make cigars are mostly foreigners, thoroughly acquainted 
with their business, a kind of work which requires a regular ap- 
prenticeship to learn. The women never give their time to learn, 
and we cannot afford to teach them, on account of the low price 
of goods made in Germany, shipped here by millions. Hence, 
the men, in their part of the business, earn from $6 to $15 per 
week. Learners receive their board. It would be much better 
if a tariff, excluding cheap cigars, were passed. The comfort and 
remuneration are as good as any branch of female industry. 
Board, 82 to $3." 

5 14. Toy Makers. The thousand and one inventions for 
amusing children have given exercise to a variety of talents. 
Any particular style of toy follows the fashion of the world — -it 
passes away, and another takes its place. Pewter to} 7 s are made 
in New York, tin toys in Philadelphia and Connecticut. The 
reason more toys are not made in this country is the high price 
of labor and living. Children's drums are made both in the 
city and country. N. & Co., manufacturers of military and toy 
drums in Massachusetts, write : " We employ one woman only in 
our factory, who makes the straps for drums. She works by the 
piece, and earns $1 a day, boarding herself." A manufacturer 
of pewter toys, in New York, employs ten or twelve boys. He 
pays $1.75 per week, of ten hours a day. He could use girls just 
as well, but prefers boys. I called at a manufactory of tin ware. 
The proprietor makes tin toys, and employs some women to paint 
them. The work has to be done on the premises, as the articles 
have to be subjected to heat after they are painted. The girls 
work ten hours a day, and are paid $3 a week. H., New York, 
makes small boats and vessels. They range in price from 37 



476 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

cents to $30. The highest priced are perfect in all their parts. 
He pays a woman $80 a year for stitching by machine the edges 
of the sails. B., manufacturer of mechanical toys, employs twenty 
girls in soldering and painting. The painting is done by stencils. 
It requires but a short time to learn. Good hands earn from 
$2.50 to $4 per week. There are two departments in the manu- 
facture of dolls — making and painting. D. employs women out of 
the house to make bodies for dolls — muslin stuffed with wadding. 
G., New York, pays his girls about $4 per week for dressing 
dolls. At a large store in New York, I was told they employ a 
number of girls for dressing dolls, paying from $3 to $4 per 
week. They pay by the piece, according to the size, and style 
of dress. In busy seasons, the girls are allowed to take some 
dolls home and dress them in the evening. Doll dressing re- 
quires taste, expertness, ingenuity, and economy in cutting the 
materials. Their room is superintended by a lady. At a store 
for the sale of fancy goods, on inquiring about the canton-flannel 
rabbits, mice, &c, I was told they give them to a school girl in 
Brooklyn to make. She makes them out of school hours, and 
earns $1.50 per week. They are sewed by a machine, because it 
can be done faster. The treasurer of a firm manufacturing 
Yankee notions, in Providence, writes they have six women 
employed in labelling and packing light goods, who earn from 
$3 to $6 per week, of ten hours a day. It requires about four 
weeks to learn to do the work. There is no difference in seasons. 
What work women do at all they do as well as men. Some 
places are better than others for this style of manufacture. 

515. Varnishers and Varnish Makers. In France, 
women are employed as varnishers of furniture. At some varnish 
factories, women are employed to separate the good from the im- 
perfect gum, and I think are paid the usual price of woman's 
work, 50 cents a day. Women might make spirit varnish. 
Copal varnish has to be boiled, and is liable to take fire. As it 
requires much strength to stir it, women could not very well 
make it. The varnishing of pianos could be done by women. 
A manufacturer of musical instruments told me a solution, one 
constituent of which is pulverized marble, has been made for 
varnishing, that is very substantial. A knife can be broken 
against it, after it has become hardened on furniture. It will 
probably be used very extensively. 

516. Water Carriers. " Everywhere on the banks of 
the Nile, the poorer sort of women may be seen bringing up 
water from the river, in pitchers, on their heads or shoulders." 
There are from one hundred to one hundred and fifty water car- 
riers in London, but they are mostly or all men. 



UNUSUAL EMPLOYMENTS. 477 



EMPLOYMENTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

517. Blind Women. Many blind persons are employed 
as follows : Attendants in blind institutions, authors, basket 
makers, bead workers, broom makers, brush makers, carpet and 
rug weavers, chair seaters, flower and fruit venders, governesses, 
hair and moss pickers, hucksters, knitters, match sellers, mattress 
makers, milk sellers, music teachers, netters, newspaper and 
book agents, paper-box makers, seamstresses, stationers, straw 
braiders, teachers, umbrella sewers, washerwomen, willow workers. 
We think they usually engage in their work with pleasure 
and profit. Fortunately the tools employed in the occupa- 
tions of the blind do not cost much. So if the blind have a 
thorough knowledge of some pursuit, and means to keep them 
until they are established and able to secure constant work, they 
may feel sure of a comfortable livelihood. Their occupations are 
of a kind to furnish them with most constant employment in a 
city. Though the compensation for each article is small, yet, 
when one's time is fully occupied, the aggregate is considerable. 

518. Deaf Mutes. Deaf mutes can engage in most 
branches of book making, fancy work, sewing, shoe making, teach 
drawing, and teach those afflicted like themselves. 

519. The Xiame. The lame can braid straw, color photo- 
graphs, copy, cut labels, edit papers, embroider, engrave, make 
mats, make pens, model, paint, sew — indeed, do almost anything. 
Lameness is no excuse for idleness. What do lame men do ? 
None of them, that have any self-respect, beg or sit idle because 
they are lame. 



UNUSUAL EMPLOYMENTS. 

520. United States. Last summer, a lady ascend- 
ed alone in a balloon, from Palace Garden, N. Y. She went 
up once in a balloon filled with hot air. She received part of 
the profits derived from the admittance fees, and the keeper of the 
garden the other portion, neither of which were very large. 
Several women have gone up with their husbands. We take the 
following items from the summary of the San Francisco Alta 
California, of December 5th: u At the recent election, two 
women were elected to fill office in Placer County — one as jus- 



478 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

tice of the peace, and the other as constable. Each received 
one vote in the precinct, and there was no opposition." It is 
seldom that a lady's exertions are called forth as were those of 
Mrs. Patton, wife of the captain of the ship Neptune's Gar, 
Yet, it goes to confirm what we have stated in some other place, 
that any valuable information acquired will always come in use. 
We will quote the extract as we saw it in a newspaper, copied 
from a San Francisco letter : " Fifty days ago, Captain Patton 
was attacked with the brain fever, and for the last twenty-five 
days has been blind. Previous to his illness, he had put the first 
mate off duty on account of his incompetency. After the captain's 
illness, the second mate took charge of the ship, but he did not 
understand navigation. The first mate wrote Mrs. Patton a letter, 
reminding her of the dangers of the coast, and of the great re- 
sponsibility she had assumed, and offered to take charge of the 
ship; but she stood by the decision of her husband and declined 
the offer. She worked up the reckoning every day, and brought 
the ship safely into port. During all this time she acted as nurse 
to the captain. She studied medicine to learn how to treat his 
case, and shaved his head, and by competent care and watchful- 
ness kept him alive. She said that for fifty nights she had not 
undressed herself. Few women could have done so much and 
done it so well. She was at once navigator, nurse, and physician, 
and protector of the property intrusted to her husband." The 
Geneva Courier notices the appearance in that village l of a strong- 
armed, strong-backed, and, of course, strong-minded woman, in 
charge of a canal boat, of which she is owner and captain. She 
is of German origin, and manages her craft with great ability/' 
In New York, I saw a woman driving a bread wagon, one rolling 
a wheelbarrow, and another drawing a similar wagon filled with 
ashes. A few women are employed in charcoal burning in New 
Jersey. 

521. England. In looking over the census of Great Brit- 
ain, for 1850, we are surprised to find that in some of those 
occupations most suitable for women, as physicians, music com- 
posers, teachers of mathematics, macaroni packers, mask makers, 
honey dealers, lecturers, reporters, and spice merchants, not one 
female is reported ; while ; in occupations altogether unsuitable, 
many women are employed — in some, even hundreds. No doubt 
many of these women, perhaps a majority, and in some occupa- 
tions it may be all, are the widows of men who have been engaged 
in the business, and who employ others to do the work. In some 
of the other occupations, the women probably do only the lighter 
work, under the direction of the masters or competent foremen. 
Circumstances, as regards occupation, certainly do much to in- 



UNUSUAL EMPLOYMENTS. 479 

fluence the fate of every one. But in no respect is there a greater 
need of reform, than in the proper appreciation of employments 
by the sexes. Men have, in bygone times, seized upon the lightest 
and most lucrative occupations, and by custom still retain them. 
The most laborious and disagreeable work is left for women, and 
what is still worse, they are paid only from one third to one half 
as much as men, doing the same kind of work. Of the occupa- 
tions that strike us as odd for women, in the census of Great Brit- 
ain, are makers of agricultural implements, anchor smiths, barge 
women, barge boat builders, bell hangers, bedstead makers, bill 
stickers, blacksmiths, brass manufacturers, brick makers, bristle 
manufacturers, builders, carpenters, case (packing) makers, chim- 
ney sweepers, coke burners, commercial travellers, engine and 
machinery makers, ferriers, goldbeaters, grindstone cutters, 
gun makers, hawkers, hemp manufacturers, hinge makers, 
nail manufacturers, oil refiners, paper hangers, parasol and 
umbrella stick manufacturers, peat cutters, plasterers, potato 
merchants, railway-station attendants, razor makers, ring-chain 
makers, rivet makers, rope makers, saddle-tree makers, sail 
makers, scale makers, sawyers, scavengers, sextons, ship agents, 
ship builders, small steel-ware manufacturers, snuff and tobacco 
manufacturers, spade makers, spar cutters, spirit and wine mer- 
chants, stone breakers, stone quarriers, stove, grate, and range 
makers, sugar refiners, surgical-instrument makers, timber mer- 
chants, timber choppers and benders, tin manufacturers, trunk 
makers, turners, turpentine manufacturers, undertakers, vermin 
destroyers, well sinkers, wheelwrights, white-metal manufacturers, 
wine manufacturers, wood dealers, and zinc manufacturers. In 
the furniture trade of Great Britain, 5,763 women are employed, 
while 7,479 are engaged in conveyance. I would also add, that 
in Great Britain, women have been, and still are, to some extent, 
employed in coal, copper, iron, lead, manganese, salt, tin, and 
other mineral mines. Of those for men extremely inappropri- 
ate, are reported three hundred and sixty-six dress makers, and 
sixty-one embroiderers. " In the reign of George II. (says Mrs. 
Childs), the minister of Clerkenwell was chosen by a majority of 
women. The office of champion has frequently been held by a 
woman, and was so at the coronation of George I. The office of 
grand chamberlain, in 1822, was filled by two women ; and that 
of clerk of the crown, in the court of king's bench, has been 
granted to a female. The celebrated Anne, Countess of Pem- 
broke, held the hereditary office of sheriff of Westmoreland, and 
exercised it in person, sitting on the bench of the judges. In 
ancient councils, mention is made of deaconesses; and in an edition 
of the New Testament printed in 1574, a woman is spoken of as 



480 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

minister of a church." Miss Betsy Miller has for years com- 
manded the Scotch brig, Cleotus. Her father commanded 
a vessel plying between England and France. After his 
wife died, the daughter frequently accompanied him. On his 
death, being without a home on land, she took command of the 
vessel, and remained in the capacity of captain several years. 
An English correspondent of an American paper writes : " Walk- 
ing, lately, near some white-lead works, about the hour of closing, 
we observed the sudden egress of about a hundred women from 
the establishment, all Irish, and all decently clad and well con- 
ducted. On inquiry, we found that they are employed continu- 
ously in the works, piling the lead for oxidation, and in various 
other processes, not by any means coming under the denomination 
of light labor." A few years ago, a singular death occurred in 
England. It was that of a woman, who, owing to harsh treat- 
ment from her parents when a child, left her home at the age of 
eight, dressed in boy's clothes, got work as a boy, learned the 
trade of a mason, and worked at it until about middle age, when 
the business was changed for that of a beer house, in which occu- 
pation the individual continued until her death, at the age of sixty. 
She always dressed as a man. When quite } r oung, she was very 
industrious and hard-working. Many of the large houses and tall 
chimneys in Manchester and Salford were built by her. " The 
7,000 women returned in the census under the head of miners, 
are, no doubt, for the most part, the dressers of the ores in the 
Cornish and Welsh mines. The work is dirty, but not too labori- 
ous; less laborious than the work which may perhaps be included 
under the same head — the supplying porcelain clay from the same 
regions of country. Travellers in Devonshire and Cornwall are 
familiar with the ugly scenery of hillsides where turf is taken up, 
and the series of clay pits is overflowing, and the plastered women 
are stirring the mess, or sifting and straining, or drying or mould- 
ing the refined clay. The mineral interest is, however, one of the 
smallest in the schedule of female industry ; and it is likely to 
contract, rather than expand — except the labor of sorting the 
ores." In Great Britain, some women work in alabaster, and 
some in alum mines. In what is called the Black country, some 
women are employed on the pit banks, and some about the furnace 
yards. A London paper says : " Melton and its neighborhood 
can boast of three public characters, which, perhaps, no other 
can ; namely, two independent ladies, who have taken out game 
certificates, and who enter the field, and can bring down the game 
equal to any sportsman, as well as those indulging in fishing, 
hunting over the country with hounds, &c. The third is a female 
blacksmith, a daughter of Mr. William Hinman, who is such an 



UNUSUAL EMPLOYMENTS. 481 

adept at shoeing a horse or working at the anvil, as to cause uni- 
versal excitement. It was but the other day that she took off the 
old shoes of a horse, pared the feet, and fitted the shoes at the fire, 
and affixed them in the most scientific manner possible, and in 
considerably less time than her father could, who is called one of 
the quickest shoers in Melton." Some women are employed as 
kelp burners in Great Britain ; and some, as bathers, manage the 
bathing machines used on the coast. In the census of Great 
Britain are reported some women as hack proprietors. 

522. France. A Paris correspondent of the New York 
Times writes : " My washerwoman is a man. He lives in the 
Rue Blanc, and any one may see him up to his elbows in soap 
suds, or ironing frills on bosoms. His wife is a wood sawyer." 
It is not unusual, in the public gardens of Germany, and on the 
broad sidewalks of the Boulevards in Paris, for men and women 
to hire a chair for a sou to a passer by who wishes to rest. In 
France, some women are engaged in cutting and drying seaweeds, 
and some in making wooden shoes. " In the department of Sonne, 
France, women alone have the right to go into the fields and gather 
stones to repair the roads. In the cantons where peat is dug, the 
privilege of loading and unloading the boats which carry it is 
given them. At Cistal, in Provence, women alone have been 
authorized to sell the water which was brought from a fountain 
some distance from the city. No man could be a carrier of water. 
In other parts, to women is given the transport of trunks, valises, 
clothes bags, and effects for the use of travellers on packets. These 
resources are momentary. Accorded by one mayor, they can be 
withdrawn by another." " In Paris, women cry the rate of ex- 
change, after Bourse hours." They also " undertake the moving 
of furniture, agree with you as to price, and you find them quite 
as responsible as men." The author of " Parisian Sights and 
French Principles " mentions a number of female employments 
rather novel to Americans : " I will say nothing of their labor- 
ing in the field, their driving huge carts through the streets of 
Paris, and other rude labors which soon rub out of them all 
feminine softness ; but confine myself to the more agreeable duties 
which they have here usurped from men. Indeed, a man is but a 
secondary being in the scale of French civilization. The i dames 
a comptoir ' are as essential to the success of a Parisian cafe as 
the cook himself. More hats are donned at their shrines than 
before the most brilliant belles of the metropolis. My boot 
maker, or the head of the establishment, is a woman ; my porter 
is of the same sex, older in years and worse in looks ; my butcher, 
milkman, and the old-clothes man, newsboy, and rag gatherer be- 
neath my window, ditto. They are waiters at the baths, door- 
21 



482 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

keepers at the theatres, ticket sellers, fiddlers, chair letters of 
the churches ; they figure in every revolution, and have a ton<nie 
and arms in every fight ; in short, they are at the bottom and top 
of everything in France." In the Hotel des Invalides, at Paris, 
is Lieutenant Madame Brulow, who entered in 1799, and has been 
there ever since. Her father, brothers, and husband were sol- 
diers, and were all killed in battle ; at the age of twenty she was 
a widow and a mother. She joined the French army at Corsica, 
where she behaved very bravely ; but was disabled for service by 
the bursting of a bomb while in the discharge of her duties as 
sergeant. She is a woman of chaste manners and correct princi- 
ples. She dresses in the uniform of the Invalides. Louis XVIII. 
conferred on her the rank of second lieutenant, and by the present 
Napoleon she was made a member of the society of the Legion 
of Honor. A female soldier, whose history is similar to Madame 
Brulow's, died near Paris, a short time since, at the age of eighty- 
seven. She was a dragoon, and served in Italy, Germany, and 
Spain, in all the campaigns of the French, from 1793 to 1812. 
When Bonaparte was first consul, he expressed a wish to see 
her, and she was kindly received by him at St. Cloud. She 
received many wounds in battle, and had four horses killed under 
her. We find the following article, taken from Galignani's Mes- 
senger : " In consequence of the success obtained by Madame 
Isabella in breaking horses for the Bussian army, the French 
Minister of War authorized her to proceed, officially, before a 
commission of generals and superior officers of cavalry, to a 
practical demonstration of the method, on a certain number of 
young cavalry horses. After twenty days' training, the horses 
were so perfectly broken in, that the Minister no longer hesitated 
to enter into an arrangement with Madame Isabella to introduce 
her system into all the imperial schools of cavalry, beginning 
with that of Saumur." 

523. Other Countries. Professor Ingraham, in his 
" Pillar of Fire," describing the Hebrews at work in Egypt, 
says : " The men that carried brick to the smoothly swept ground 
where they were to be dried, delivered them to women, who, many 
hundreds in number, placed them side by side on the earth in 
rows — a lighter task than that of the men. The borders of this 
busy plain, where it touched the fields of stubble wheat, were 
thronged with women and children gathering straw for the men 
who mixed the clay." " The Egyptian ladies," says the same 
writer, " employed much of their time with the needle, and either 
with their own hands, or by the agency of their maidens, they 
embroidered, wove, spun, and did needlework." Herodotus says : 
" It was expected of the virgins consecrated to the service of the 



UNUSUAL EMPLOYMENTS. 483 

Egyptian temples to gather flowers for the altars, to feed the sa- 
cred birds, and daily to fill the vases with pure, fresh water from 
the Nile." During the middle ages, " women preached in public, 
supported controversies, published and defended theses, filled the 
chairs of philosophy and law, harangued the popes in Latin, 
wrote Greek, and read Hebrew. Nuns wrote poetry, women of 
rank became divines, and young girls publicly exhorted Christian 
princes to take up arms for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre." 
" In the Greek island of Hinnin, the inhabitants gain a livelihood 
by obtaining sponges for the Turkish baths ; and no girl is allowed 
to marry till she has proved her dexterity by bringing up from the 
sea a certain quantity of this marketable article." The wife of 
the Burmese governor was observed, by some Englishmen, to su- 
perintend the building of her husband's ship. " In many of the 
South Sea islands, women assist in the construction of the build- 
ings appropriated to common use. Sometimes a woman of dis- 
tinction may be seen carrying a heavy stone for the foundation of 
a building, while a stout attendant carries the light feathered 
staff to denote her rank." " In Genoa there are marriage bro- 
kers, who have pocketbooks filled with the names of marriageable 
girls of different classes, with an account of their fortunes, per- 
sonal attractions, &c. When they succeed in arranging connec- 
tions, they have two or three per cent, commission on the por- 
tion. The contract is often drawn up before the parties have seen 
each other. If a man dislikes the appearance or manners of his 
future partner, he may break off the match, on condition of paying 
the brokerage and other expenses." In the " Art Student in 
Munich," we find this passage : " You know, in Germany, your 
neighbor's dresses by meeting the laundresses bearing them home 
through the streets upon tall poles, like gay pennons." "In 
Munich, a servant girl will be sent around with a number of ad- 
vertisements and a paste pot, and pastes up the advertisements at 
the corners of the streets throughout the city." " At Homburg, 
Germany, four, six, or eight girls, according to the season, dip the 
water from the spring, by taking three tumblers by the handles in 
each hand, and filling them without stopping, and supplying 
those in waiting, so fast that there is no crowd and no jostling 
and impatience." Mrs. Nicolson says : c ' Many a poor widow 
have I seen in Ireland, with some little son or daughter, spread- 
ing manure, by moonlight, over her scanty patch of ground ; or, 
before the rising of the sun, going out, with her wisp about her 
forehead and basket to her back, to gather her turf or potatoes." 
" In the elevated, cold, dry regions of Thibet, the goats are fur- 
nished with a fine down or hair-like wool under the coarse, com- 
mon outer wool. The long hairs are picked out, the remainder 



484: THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

washed out in nice water, and then handspun by women." " In 
some African tribes, it is common for the women to unite with 
the men in hunting the lion and the leopard." During the reign 
of Anne of Austria, the French women often appeared at the 
head of political factions, wearing scarfs that designated the party 
to which they belonged. Swords and harps, violins and cuirasses, 
were seen together in the same saloon. There was a regiment 
created under the name of mademoiselle. w During the late war, 
Polish women assisted the men in erecting fortifications, and one 
of the outworks was called the ' lunette of the women,' because it 
was built entirely by their hands. The Countess Plater raised 
and equipped a regiment of five or six hundred Lithuanians at her 
own expense ; and she was uniformly at their head, encouraging 
them by her brave example in every battle. The women pro- 
posed to form three companies of their own sex, to share the 
fatigues and perils of the army ; but their countrymen, wishing 
to employ their energies in a manner less dangerous, distributed 
them among the hospitals to attend the wounded." " In the army 
of the King of Siam, one corps particularly attracts the attention 
of strangers, which is a battalion of the king's guard, composed 
of women. This battalion consists of four hundred women, 
chosen from among the handsomest and most robust girls in the 
country. They receive excellent pay, and their discipline is per- 
fect. They are admitted to serve at the age of thirteen, and are 
placed in the army of reserve at twenty-five. From that period 
they no longer serve about the king's person, but are employed to 
guard the royal palaces and crown lands. " 



MINOR EMPLOYMENTS. 

524. United States. A little boy told me he used to 
catch butterflies, and sell them in New York at a penny apiece 
for canary birds. Sometimes he would get one hundred a day ; 
and at other times, not as many a week. Some women are seen 
on the streets of our large cities, selling baskets, brushes, sponges, 
and wash leather — and many with baskets containing tape, cord, 
pins, &c. Some women buy waste paper to sell to grocers, 
butchers, fishmongers, and such others as would use it for wrap- 
ping. A few resort to levees and warehouses to seek the scraps 
of waste cotton that are lost by the removal of bales. Some col- 



MINOR EMPLOYMENTS. 485 

lect ashes, separate the cinders, wash and sell them ; while some 
collect wood scattered about lumber yards, and catch that drifting 
in rivers. 

525. England. Some children on the streets of London 
are employed in the sale of fly-papers. Some sell paper cuttings 
to ornament ceilings. Sand is sold on the streets for scouring 
and for birds — also gravel for birds. Some women, in London, 
go around and buy the skins of rabbits and hares to sell again, 
and some keep little shops where they buy kitchen stuff, grease, 
and dripping. In England, women are hired to pick currants 
and gooseberries, put up fruit, weed gardens, bind grain, pick 
hops, and sometimes even to cut hay and dig potatoes. On the 
streets of London, some women sell conundrums and playbills, 
which are pinned to a large screen, and a number sell stationery. 
In old countries nothing is lost. Use is found for every article, 
even when no longer of value for its original purpose. For in- 
stance, old tin kettles and coal scuttles, we learn from Mr. Bab- 
bage, are cut up for the bottoms and bands of trunks, and by 
manufacturing chemists in preparing a black dye used by calico 
printers. In some cities of the old countries, every variety of 
second-hand miscellaneous articles are sold in shops, from a 
Jew's harp to a bedstead. In London, Mayhew says : " Among 
the mudlarks may be seen many old women, and it is indeed 
pitiable to behold them, especially during the winter, bent nearly 
double with age and infirmity, paddling and groping among the 
wet mud for small pieces of coal, chips of wood, copper nails that 
drop out of the sheathing of vessels, or any sort of refuse washed 
up by the tide. These women always have with them an old 
basket, or an old tin kettle, in which they put whatever they may 
chance to find. It usually takes them the whole tide to fill the 
receptacle, but, when filled, it is as much as the feeble old creatures 
are able to carry home." Little girls, too, eagerly press into the 
mud as the tide recedes, to secure what trifles they can, by which 
to gain bread. ' 

526. France. In France, many women are employed in 
vineyards to pick grapes, tie up the vines, &c. L. told me he 
had seen women in France employed in preparing a kind of fuel 
made of clay mixed in water, cast in moulds, and dried. Females 
are employed by some of the merchants in Paris to carry goods 
home for purchasers. One of the most flourishing of the minor 
street trades of Paris is that in fried potatoes, invented some 
twenty-five years ago by a man that made his fortune at the busi- 
ness. A few years back might have been seen in the grounds 
of the Tuileries an old woman with a long stick, drawing off the 
surface of the water the feathers that loosened and fell from the 



486 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

swans that floated on the ponds. That old woman sold the 
feathers to buy bread. 

527. Occupations in -which no Women are em- 
ployed. I have received information from persons saying 
women are never engaged in their branches of business, which 
are the following: Architectural Ornamentation, Bonedust, 
Buckets, Carriage painting, Copperas (" hard and unsuitable "), 
Currying, Drug Mills ("only fit for able-bodied men"), Edge 
Tools ("not adapted to the sex "), Emery Paper, Flour Mills, 
Glazier's Diamonds, Gunpowder (" dangerous"), India Rubber 
Belting, Magnesia, Melodeons, Mercantile Agencies, Metallic 
Furniture, Oil, Oil Cloth, Organ building, Paint Mills, Pattern 
making (of wood), Pearlash (" unsuitable "), Philosophical In- 
struments (except Globes), Pine Furniture, Pork packing, Reed 
making, Rivets, Roll covering, Seed crushing (" requires able 
bodied men"), Sellers of License, Ship Crackers, Shot and Lead 
("dangerous and unhealthy"), Shovels, Slate, Spools, Starch 
( a too hard"), Steel-letter cutting, Stone quarrying, Street-lamp 
lighting, Sulphur (''unhealthy"), Superphosphate of Lime ( u re- 
quires too much muscular strength"), Surveyors' and Engineers' 
Instruments, Tanning, Tinfoil, Trowels, Vinegar, Wholesale Fruit 
dealing, Wire drawing, Wool combing, and Zinc manufacture 

528. None in the United States. There are no 
women employed in any capacity in connection with mining and 
shipping coal in our country. Neither could any branch of the 
business be well placed under their supervision, for very nearly 
all the labor is performed by foreigners of the most low and il- 
literate class." None are employed in Baggage transportation, 
Bleaching, Brokers' Offices, Chemical Works, Cutlery, Furniture 
moving, Glue drying, Gun making, Iron Works, Landscape gar- 
dening, Lead Pencils, Sail making, Savings Banks, Silvering 
Mirrors, Tending Sheep, and Wood carving. 

529. Very few employed. Attending in offices of 
ladies' physicians, Charcoal burning, China painting, Chiropody, 
Clock Work, Lacquering, Marble Work, Mirror Frames, Sign 
painting, Stencil cutting, and Stone Ware. "As a curious incident 
of the growing availability of female labor, Vermont returns four 
females engaged in ship building, and Virginia reports two so 
employed." Mrs. Swisshelm is an inspector of lumber, receiving 
a salary of $500 per annum. Mrs. N. Smith was recently elected 
mayoress in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the first time that office was ever 
filled by a lady. We have been told of a Miss D., who furnishes 
houses, receiving a stipulated sum for the exercise of her taste 
and judgment, and the time and trouble of making purchases. 
In the Southern States, a few colored women are employed about 



OPENINGS IN THE SOUTH. 



487 



sugar mills, and many in gathering cotton. I suppose that in 
some countries women may be, and probably are employed in 
the preparation of isinglass and gelatine ; also, incollecting cochi- 
neal, and gathering rice and coffee. 

530. The South. There will be openings in the South for 
business in the following branches : 



Artificial Eyes, Limbs, 
and Teeth. 

Artificial Flowers. 

Bags (Cotton and Pa- 
per). 

Baskets. 

Belts (Ladies'). 

Bonnets. 

Bonnet Ruches. 

Bonnet Frames. 

Books* 

Braces and Trusses. 

Brushes. 

Buttons. 

Candles (from the tal- 
low tree of South 
Carolina and Geor- 
gia). 

Candy. 

Canes. 

Caps. 

Card Printing and 
Stencilling. 

Carpets. 

Carriage Trimmings. 

Car and Carriage Or- 
namenting. 

China. 

Cigars. 

Cloaks and Mantillas. 

Clocks. 

Clothing. 

Cord. 

Cordage and Twine. 

Cutlery. 

Daguerreotype Appa- 
ratus, &c. 

Designs. 

Drawings (Architectu- 
ral, &c ) 

Dress Caps. 



Dress Trimmings. 

Embroideries. 

Envelopes. 

Factory Work. 

Fancy Stores. 

Feather Dressing. 

Fishing Tackle. 

Furniture. 

Gilding. 

Gold Chains. 

Gold Pens. 

Gold and Silver Leaf. 

Grape Growing. 

Gum-Elastic Goods. 

Hair Dressing andMan- 

ufacturing. 
Hardware. 
Hats. 

Hoop Skirts. 
Horse Coverings. 
Ink. 

Jewelry. 
Labels. 
Lamps. 

Lapidaries' Work. 
Laundries. 
Lead. 
Leather. 
Life Preservers. 
Lithographing. 
Maps. 
Matches. 
Military Goods. 
Needle and Thread 

Stores. 
Oils. 

Paper Boxes. 
Patterns (Ladies' and 

Children's). 
Plated Ware. 
Paints. 



Painting and Staining 
of Glass. 

Perfumery. 

Photography. 

Practising Medicine. 

Picture Restoring. 

Pipes. 

Places of Summer Re- 
sort. 

Porcelain. 

Potash. 

Pottery. 

Printing. 

Rag Collecting. 

Sealed Provisions. 

Sewing-Machine La- 
bor. 

Shoes. 

Shot. 

Soda and Saleratus. 

Spectacles. 

Stair Rods. 

Steel Engraving. 

Straw Working. 

Surgical Instruments. 

Suspenders. 

Tailors' Work. 

Tape. 

Tobacco Stripping and 
Packing. 

Toys. 

Types. 

Umbrellas and Para- 
sols. 

Under Wear. 

Wall Paper. 

Watches. 

Willow Growing. 

Window Shades. 

Wood Engraving. 



There will be openings in St. Louis and Chicago for fur 
sewers. There has been a demand for mill girls in Rhode Island. 



488 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

There is a surplus now of workers in cotton mills, but not of 
operatives in woollen mills. A gentleman in Middletown, Conn., 
wrote me a boarding house for work girls is wanted there. 
Makers of ladies' dress caps and ironers of new shirts have been 
scarce in New York cfty. 

531. Prices of Board for Workwomen, and Re- 
marks of Employers. Aside from the prices of board for 
workwomen as mentioned in different parts of this work, I have 
intelligence from employers in one hundred and fifteen towns and 
cities of the Eastern States, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jer- 
sey. These places number : Maine 4, New Hampshire 13, Vermont 
4, Massachusetts 34, Rhode Island 5, Connecticut 29, New York 
19, Pennsylvania 5, and New Jersey 2. Of the places in Maine, 
prices of board for women run from $1.33^ to $1.50 a week. In 
New Hampshire, they make the same range. In Vermont, the 
price is given, of all places, at §1.50. In Rhode Island, from 
$1.50 to $3. In Connecticut, from SI. 42. to $3. Massachusetts, 
from $1.25 to $4. New York, $1.50 to $3.50. Pennsylvania, 
$1.50 to $5. New Jersey, $1.25 to $1.75. The difference in 
board is something between a small town and a city in any State. 
The largest number of employers in cities give, as the most com- 
mon prices, from $1.50 to $3 per week. Lights and washing are 
sometimes included in these prices, but washing very seldom — 
fuel in the rooms of the boarders, never. Employers write the 
boarding houses of their workmen are comfortable and respecta- 
ble. We hope they are so, and wish that as much could be said 
of all. But we must acknowledge that we feel disposed to ques- 
tion the comfort of the majority of those for which such prices 
are paid in cities as mentioned by the employers. In villages 
and towns, board could be had at such rates. But we are con- 
fident it would be impossible to furnish sufficient wholesome food 
and clean, well ventilated lodging rooms, at the rates mostly spe- 
cified in cities, where rent and provisions are high, with any profit 
to the keepers of the houses. Some employers assert that women 
can live cheaper than men. They cannot, in most places, to have 
as good accommodations ; and when they can, the difference is 
slight. So a just proportion in wages is not observed, even with 
such a plea. Most men in industrial avocations receive $1.50 a 
day (many $2) ; women, from 50 cents to $1 — most generally the 
former price. In France, a workman usually receives 60 cents a 
day ; a woman, over 30 cents. So women do not receive even as 
good wages, in proportion to men, in the United States, as in 
France. In Lyons, France, women have always been paid for 
work performed in the same proportion as men. Most hand seam- 
stresses receive starvation prices in both countries. In most in- 



NUMBER OF WORK HOURS. 489 

dustrial employments in Dublin, Ireland, women receive six 
English shillings a week, for their work of ten hours a day. Yet 
on the dusty and disagreeable labor of sorting and picking 
rags, some are enabled to earn eight shillings a week, but they are 
paid by the piece. School children in Dublin, as well as the work- 
ing classes, usually take Monday for a holiday. Nor is it con- 
fined to Dublin. In France and England, Monday is made a day 
of freedom from work, and of reckless dissipation, with a large 
portion of the working people. In most occupations open to 
women, the times for work are usually not more than six months 
in the year, while men's extend the year round. Some employers 
write their women have more time than inclination for mental 
improvement — that all their time is at their disposal, except those 
hours employed in the factory, workshop, or store, which run 
from ten to seventeen hours. A woman's wardrobe requires 
some hours' attention ; and the more limited her means, the more 
time is needed to keep it in repair. We think employers could 
do much good by learning the condition of their work people — 
what their habits and home comforts are; and would recommend 
to those disposed to learn something of the results, to read a work 
called " The Successful Merchant." I have heard there is a great 
laxity of morals in some of the establishments of New York, 
where men and women are employed. Proprietors and foremen 
of correct principles could do much to prevent this. Much, too, 
might be avoided by a careful selection of work people. I learn 
from one employer that one of his workwomen reads aloud to the 
others while at work. It is an admirable plan, but, where machin- 
ery is employed, could not be adopted, because of the noise. The 
best policy for any government is a protection of home produce 
and manufactures — a policy that it is desirable to see carried out 
more fully in our country. It will be observed that the farther 
we go south, as a general thing, the better are the prices paio^ for 
labor. Living, however, is somewhat higher. So what is gained 
in one way is lost in another. A majority of workwomen in this 
country are foreigners. In New York, I have heard the opinion 
expressed that there are in that city fifteen foreign workwomen 
where there is one American. One source of trouble among 
workwomen is the indifferent way in which they execute their 
work, arising from the want of proper instruction, the want of 
application, or a careless habit they acquire. Another failing is 
stopping often when at work. A misfortune with many work- 
women is that they have not the physical strength to do much 
work, to do it constantly, or to do it fast. 

532. Number cf Work Hours. In France, the number 
of work hours is 12 ; in England, 10; and in most of the United 
21* 



490 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 

States, 10. In some of the United States there are no laws reg- 
ulating the number of work hours ; and in some States, where 
such laws do exist, they are evaded. 

533. Extracts from the Census Report for 1360. 

In advance of publication, Mr. Kennedy, Superintendent of the 
United States Census Report, writes : " The whole number, approx- 
imately, of females employed in the various branches of manufac- 
ture, is 285,000. The following are approximations to the average 
wages paid in New York and New England. Monthly wages 
of females employed in making 



" Boots and shoes, 


. $11 25 


Book folding, . . $15 38 


Clothing, . . . 


. 12 00 


Printing, .... 13 65 


Cotton goods, . . 


. 13 30 


Millinery, . ... 17 47 


Woollen, . . . 


. 16 00 


Ladies 7 mantillas, &c. 16 00 


Paper boxes, . 


. 14 30 


Hoop skirts, . . . 14 00 " 


Umbrellas, &c, 


. 13 38 





APPENDIX. 



492 



THE EMPLOYMENTS QF WOMEN. 



i t U9uio^Y jo tunuiix«j\[ 



BjUatuo^w J° uininiujiv 



bo 



\ th 



2 < £ 






,0 O 






© © 



S*»bD . 

- s 5 



c3 c5 

►o>-s 



.-• aT ©~ r ' 



. £ r r r . 

,T 4oS4)«) 









• r t^''- 1 bice? tJI ^ &* 




• oo»o -oSoooo 

•COM • <N ^ ~ 



o o ao -<* tji o ao n 



. ojOOOOO 



C3 

•OOOOOOOOOiOOOCOO 
•(NCOnnOJn (Ni-iCCHr-tH 



B < a8 K J° umunxuj^ 



iSOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO© 

«ONCOOO(NHnCQ!!f)OflOT|(riO(NOt-00000(jONiN 



•j£bq jad ea3s^\ 
B 4 u9j^ jo uinraiuji^ 



^OOiOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOi-OOOOOOOOJOOOO 



•a9iaoA\ jo jaquxutf 



H'*e-^»OeOOOffIN'ft-^'*Oit-^0)lOiOT-iOOiC»05«OiON 

EnO <M ^Ol--/)OOCO TtU-0»<MOfc-THT{it-C©<M 

CO CO TtCOt- rt<0 COO^r* iO tH O 00 r-i O 



*a»jv[ jo aaqumx 



^HH'oO^wSLOOaSiOHOI-fflMO^OOWOONfflOh'lO© 

r-oooaow©soNC5C5NO^a)rHTHoroTii«o(Mooo> oh 

<M ti rh" rj< O* (MTHCnOCJ C40 Onri© rj*H 

r-T rTfff r-T t-T 



O 

M 

% 

Q 
Q 

O 



-r = 
~~ 

£g 

9 -'15 

03 GO ^ 

•£ O O 

Sg-S © >£ 

«m *~ «w ^ O c3 

03 O CO 03 J- j- 

© O,© d M « 

o3 3 o3 o3 u -_ 



Slil 

© 'drK 

BJ aa o c c 

§ ° s ® 

mil 



o 



slum 

'©O'^.Se3^Cr2 t " t r 3 1 ' 






2^^!^ © © g 



© ©_ 
d_r © 

vi a -, 

«s ° © 



e © © 

©^rbj 

f- 03 03 



a d a 



APPENDIX. 



493 



© d 

fe © 

>pQ 






ft»&B.b 



O rrt _, ^ c5 >> 

ft * 3 g ft ►* 



■:£ ^ 



ft O £ 

^ "S *3 

.11 



of r r 

« a p 

P c3 c3 



<y p © o 

p" p g a 

c3 c3 «3 c3 



^ >» r 

rl i> r 
© S S 



^ I 

3 _^L> i-t \A 



© <o 
fer 3 



.s 



a ft 



&& 



•-5 "3 



flcflo J 

i* =3 P>. 



S r o tic - - 

«3 fcfc<P P _~ o 

^5 *< ©© 

S3 H3 § § 






© P © P. - J-> 
O 3 © 3 -* *3 



SOOO^OO §o »© o • o o o o o o 
tib-O»°C0«5 W H COCO • O O t* O rfi ■<# 



5OOOlC>0OlCO^OO5l 



oo • o»oc*iooo 

N(N • rl t-i tH <N <M CO 



oooooiooooooooooooooopoooooooooooo oo oooooo 



OOOlMOON(MTtb'lM«itO(MOQOOOOOTl<a)<MOOWiH(MOOOt-TfT)(QO OO 



HCO<MHHrlOT 



^HnW0n(J10H0HTHr(rtHrlH!S0rH«0 mH 



• OS Ttt t- i— 00 QO 

H Ot-H OO 



5OOOOOOOOOOOi0OOOOOC0OOOOl0OOOOOOOOO 

flc4b-«©^coori<^coc©Ttfcococo^O"*cococoocoTFco^cococoo'<*icoTH 



- 1 CJNiOfflKlt-OOlOH CO b- IOOOt 
HCOOHCSriHTH tH ^h <M 



•OrtU) <M tH 



CO«ON(M'trlCWa)©rH 



©S tH l— (M © H (M O t-i-l rlOOO 






tH 'b-O 



ft 



C3 tf) o 

of© P ;- 
*-■ © e3 PJ2 



• P 30 

. ti © 



.1.2 8 



5S£ 
-§8£ 

qnfo 

9o3 v 
o^pj p 



00 ^ 

P © ft 






bpSofl 



p rt„ 

^©©©©©©©5 



gS3 



i p p p p p 3 2 
; © © © © 2*3 ^ 



« » £ 2 2 
g g s p p 

© •3 t S <: s c p 

a ^3 P P -> 



5 3^ 

1 Mri n Q ao ao -^ O 

' S^^W> ©cc 2 

O i 3 f 8 e A rn O «J 

IJ ^ ^! © C ft P 

^3©1©f ^©I^Sg, 
logs ^^^g^^ si, 

s s^1 j § sjs s s § }: 

S5c3§c3c3c3cj?3 O © © 



V<^3oO P W^ 



.5 © © ^ 

© ©^ 



S3 

© ^H 



<6 



'-^ 5 © 



• "3 m> 



I'PCQ 

. c3 cj 



3 -Xf & 

3 © -g 

r* p C ^ •- i 
« P aa -, £ 2 "S © © 

p u ft^T:^ 5 p p 

p ^ £.* .P « § c p 

iS S ©^^t^^^H^ 



494 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



•9 ° 






bb ^ 



icy* fe^ 



,© GO ^ 05 r© " 



r3 CU^ 

S3 0) © 



to g 



tr,t 



bo 



B^S rt 



Ha«T>«^ 



s p g g g p - 






s> 13 l£5 3 v r ° 5 
fc, g J^ .^ fe< l 

[ d d ^f^ r ~ fc i ^~ 



- a a> 

! B C C 8 C ~ ^ P 
■ -1 e3 fl J " 



a p 



*.£«q aad eaSs^ 
9 t uauiOAV jo uniimxBj\[ 



^o 



. 0000000000000 ogoooo 



-- f^ •«'..-■__•— _ _ _ = _ c _ _ 7 c; c o o • o • »q c o c o 



00000 



'Av<j j ad B9Sb.\V 
e t uauiOA\. jo unuuiu;i\[ 



e 4 uaj^ jo uinunxuj^ 



jSoOOOOOOOCOC^OOOOOOSOOOOOOOOOJO • o 
£, COCOCNCNr-i<MCNCM i-iT-(r-i<NW(NM o <N(NnlNMC0'<tiMi-tK) -CM 



•£000000000 c>i 00 000 



j^iN^HOiNaiccaiaiccorco 

H t-( rH O th i-H O O t-i 1-1 <M tH h r-( t-( O O O O O O tH 1-1 O O ©3 "# <M 



•iCn<3 jad saSsAV 
8 4 a9 IV J° uinunu;j\[ 



nOOOO -OOOOOOOOOO -OOOOOOOOO «ooo 
^ O O ■"* -^ . T* CO t-i i-( OJ CO ■«* O t* CM • CO CO rt< Tji t*i O O CO t^ -ooo 



•aaiao.w jo isqian^ 



tH(J)CCOHTf»ClCcOO©OH(MC>NlOr-lOCO(MCr)C5QO(MI>Oe5«0 

<M CO Ol O CO tJi n ^ i7; <- rj* ri K CO h (M 05 O t« CO i-» CN •<* •«# 

O CO <M »- O ~ CO CN CN CO 



h O CO f-OM 



•naj^ jo aaqtanx 



bDCS 

a 03 



S 8° «SO 

£ S 2 -1 

^ hH £ "*~ 



o.2 © rt'd © 
M nM ©<©^ 

* ojs © © =2 



pq 



Vj 03 cj 



1 o ® o «or 



c ce 



*fcl3 



Tj r<j 






D S 02 

- 03 "TS 

3 ©J* 



© °J 

„ S a, S ^ -g u u 

^^2? > cl£©^mS™S£p« 



APPENDIX. 



495 



bb 2 

• < £g 
H a J r - 

"Z es © «■ 



bb 

3 



bfit 









P 9 



, ~Jr © ©"* 






S ^ bp 

^-9-9.-9-9 3 -9.3% a&* 3^ 

<w r r r r © r^ . 

c c p n c g c 2L3 o c £ 



H ^ Ph 3 d < 

ce S g ^ -< <5 <J ^ 



3 .- o © © ©>r 3 " r 



^'tj'-S^ t-D >T> ►"» "-S >"0 !-» *"t t-S "H <5 ^ '"S "*< »-5 t t 



r «3 
bp r.. 



a> h e« © ^ y 5 -o*. iu 



• o 00 o 00 000 *oooo 

• t*( OOaO-OOlO^-^r^Ttft-Ortl 



•raooooSoooco^occt- 



00000 
CO CM cm coco 



iMHMCOCOHiMlNtNiMH-Hi-l^fMiM^rtT-KNT-i <MO)(NW 



O OOOO 



OOOOOOiOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
0«O^OOiOiOOOi^*0<MO<^lOOC^OOC^-^- 



-{r-i NH«51H<NOH iH tH tH tH tH tH tH tH t-I t-( i 



- 5 «oooooooooo 

CMCO^OOOO •<MNO-*C«0'*CO 



•CMOO«SO 



CO CO t- CM CM OH^W^(»HW^T(<-J(05t.^05^t5CO'*C : lM'<*05»HOOC»eoaiiCONOS 
riOONH 05TH?Or-iT-10T-lr-l<NiOb- HOOHHHMlOO MfflOlCt-NeCOOIOrirl^ 

t-iCM Tt<T-i ^ CM CM -i-ICO^O rH CO 00 CM CO 

of t-T o 

©Tj*NON Wi0O , *H0SQ0O>0'i , MCMOiONQ0CS'^N»Tt<^Q000(Ne:W -Tf TtiriMt-iCOCC 
(S-*f tH t* CO CM tHOOOCOCMt-ICMO JO^-^t- <© rH CM • CO O rl t- t-i C 



■§£ 



fio 



;■§* 



£5 

o v. 



£ •-< CO c^ o 

© ^rK C _* 
,c5 CO w C0"5j 

S3|SS 



to ;S 

-B to 2 

etc a 

2 5 « 

b* > r ~ 

o gS 

5 fer^ 

W ^ CO 

g * *g 

si !Ts< 

g CO g g 



CO CP r, £;£, , 

^ feces ^ : 



£«s J 



C +J r— ■ 






o o ^£ ^o 

CO M JO 1--1 £ K 

O '5 *S ^ g cB 

« =3^ «3 ^ «e 



S ?§ o 



^'e3 

|6 

© i ? 
»- 5 © 

2 ^PL, 

• S ° 

^J c c 
, rt to to 

.^5 O © 



DvT CO 



« aa a> co e3 

° S g ' 

£ © © < 



■"3 2 

> feD 



^ -5 g © a 






© C3 — ■ O CO 03 K£ 



-3 rt ©^ 
: © 2"© © 



= 



>£ 



&- © : 

^ ©T^ C 

co a 3 ' 

© jo ,-£r \ 



S c © £ © ° ( 
^ « co © d « 1 

^ © © ^r'-S 

2 ci c3 ce"o rt 



-^ 

? ©a^ 
w cs © d 



*h r c-fep 



496 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



OS 



p*., - 



:s < 






QQ 



:= s o ^ P ^ - »° M 






H-l ^Hj t&| Hj fn 






;= 3 j= P P " ~* csS^PP^pSs 



' g2*?*gg42,! 



9<U8lUO^ JO UIIUUJXBJ^ 



^ ooo 



irs © • © • © g © © o -ooooooooooo 



WHQ OCa) • t— • <-0 ° «3 iC CO "<TTt<Ci(X)OOh"aOO«OOrr 



B^uatuo^w jo uniunuij\[ 



"3 .OONOOOOOnOlOCOCCOOOMClCtDNOOOO 

5 •^<M 1 - 1 <MOar-iTfO0iO03C0CMCOCMC000CMCM ri CO i-i ri (M (M CO CO 



'£v<j J9d eaSt?^ 
*« U8 IM J° uinuiixuj^ 



42 oooooooooooooooooooo ooooooo 

V rtOOOOOCT)iHOOLOO'<*'*(NlNOTtH -OCM « Ol NO CO 



t-(i-<'^-t<Nt-CSJCOT 



•X«q iad eeSwAV 
e t uai^ jo uinunuij^ 



©00»0 00000»0 00000©iOO©tf5 -ooooooo 
TfCO'*COCO , *«0">tOTtiO<N'*OOCNOlO«0'* 'lCrJlT^T^COiOCO 



•uaraoA\ jo laqumjj 



COOOrfOrl 



CNOCM T-l 



•uapi jo laqnin^ 



ntwMociOcot-wHfsiOfaiMcqciioaiccoowb-iao^coo 

k.O O b- Cl O r- iO r* t- O O ^ iC r! « r, o O ^h 00 CO M O CO th K co -h 
r-i CN COOCOCN ^fC^COHthO rl -tf r-l CN CO CM O OS CO 



£ 



p 

rt 

fe 

13 

S a 

3 :8© . 

© • ocp . 

'<o o sal 

' Pr^£ © © 
O C5 Q -S £ 

P *** P © «j 33 .2 



oo 



i^ a » 

•^ CO ^ 



4^1 

IH ©^ 



£ s p * 



I 

gag 

^3o 



© © © 



IS © © 

U rn rn 

© ?H t-> 

la* 



1/1 P3 

1m 

" CO 

p~2 
£j-3 3 ! 



p- f-< 

ftp 

fip 
© .s 



-1 



© oSm o^ 

CO CO jj * CO ^ 
© © "P^ © , 



en S rtMoQj^ 
J? P 4J^c„ rt 



S-l Vc 

S3 ^ 

rt c3 ^ 



^ i^ p bJD © © 'P 

^ © c3 © e3 cj J^ 



•^ p/$% 



p p© 



APPENDIX. 



497 



■ - 1H 
.c f ..* ft . 

c3 ©J^ 3 3 ~ 



i ^J^kZfcT © © 



bb bb© 

P S3+» 
<} <1c3 

© © "\ © -j 



t-aQQ 

.9.9 

eg 02 



3 rn S?X> 

.5 .S p ^ 

© a « 
© g >?„ 



3 fl^'CrJ 

e3 c3 3 o3 P 



SSgo 

© © S © 



P « P- 
Igfti?. 

■ift^ 

P CD S3 CDS 



S3 3 3 c3 



,6 w .,d ft 


> 

o 


c 8*>»e s £$?.. 


3 r 


c3^ C 3 c3'72 5" 


1-3 © 


tL^f fch g; t&£ jf 


be r 

Pr© 


^£^£^ 


^£ 


£j££*sg^ 


t>> r 






03 e3 % 



^5 Hr 






«5fl)mOH)CiO 



3 3 3 3 g P 
•"» <1 ^) t-3 t-a >-. fi 1-3 



O -O -lO^O^OOOOOOO 
IO «CO • lO ° «C> ° CO CO "* rii CO t- O 



• o 10 »o o o o o o o o o 00 o o o 10 O o o »c o o o o o • 

•r^CO^COO^^^OO^CXl^kOt-O^T^cO^^CO^^^^CO • 



• r-t CO CN CO CS* 



OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OO 

•^CONO^OOCOUlNlMlMOCOOOOOSQfflONOlMNOOJaJOaiOTtlHlMOi^OOaJO •CSJrJI 

7-(OHrlHOHrlHHr(MffIHHiNOOOHfflrlffliHHHOOrlOTHrHHrHHrlrtiSOffl rlH 

^K"5»«<S£50»00000000000»OOiO»OiOOOOOOO>CO -OO 

5^^^^^^<^^oooco^coc^c^co^c^cococ^^c^^co^cococsi«o -oco 



«5"*OOLO^ 



1 -lC5iC(SMN'OCOOOb-NCO'' 



rlCSCSIOlOCOiO^T-l I -1 °0 « «> H^ 1- *.^ rlnrl 



T-l Olr 



& 2 < 



- .© 



: 1 



38 



©,5 



C3 m 5 21 © 



dS © 

GGfe£ 
9 c^2 

e3 o3 3 
Q 03 



9 n . P § g -d . 

go -°-d©^ 

S be o S -2 -s Z © 
c— ^ 3 7 H^; g _ 
S-3©^ © o ° o © 

® © ^lo^: > ^tS^ 
_>^. 3 "- 33 s 



b£)©-© 3 
e3 c3 3h W 
PQPh c3 W 



^S 



SCoOOC^H fcJD^J O © © © 
lH?3 32tf>5QCQ e c3'^.£^SCm5Qw3 

^©©©©©bp^^©©©© 



2 °° s 

^ © p 
© t2 






^ : © H J 

! ofS © S 



I'o'l I 

? c © ' 



£ Sis S 

3 es c3 ^ 



fife 
o V. . 
©.Otn 

© 09 « 

C^3 
<< ^3 © £ 

r3 ^^ ° 
3<! 3^= 

ce^ 3 a 



53r©_ 






2 © 2 2 * 

5^ P-l 5 © "P 

o w © g 
02 © 50 © 

3 3 3 2 22 

C 03 o8*C cS'q 
1— ' ^ ^ i; ^ ft , 



^2! 



S^S^S^t 



498 



THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 









fe<^ 



S^G 



y d. J rt G ej 3 5) 



<< © 
• ^ - 



~c» ! 

5S< 



I-, •"» ^ [s, fe "S ft, 

■ r k" cT r r - ©" r 
c^c g c r 6 a 

rt 3 3^ c3 c3 S c3 



£ r« r^r r5 

>-» »"S *Z Q •"» ►"B *< I 



>, r 



Sf 1 ^ ^c^ 



&S OS o 
02 J ^ .. © 

be tL o & 5 © © 

>»>» r re? - r 

r* . -- 1 <u oi ^ <d © 



CJD 



«P 



c c rj a s c d 






OOOOK5 • 
rfi "<# O CO O • 



•iCsQ aad soSbaV. 
B 4 aaiuo^Y J° uintaiuiiM 



<M<MriC^CM(MCOCMCCCO^<>ICOr-ia 



\Cu(j-J9d saStiAi 



HOCMCOrH r-lr 






9 4 U9]\r jo uinunuij^ 



ooooooooooio • o o <: 

CN rj< «0 CO CO CO CO «0 SO CO CM • CO lO T 



*aacao A v\ jo Jaquinvj 



Ot- COCN^OCT;^ O CN DO CN CN I- CN ri t)< O » CO CO r-l 

TjiCN US OCNO CO r-t ri 00 



•a9|^ jo aaqranx 



Ot)<t)I(X)Ci(5w«hOO 



b-NOCSN'tCO COCOt-CC'OCSICSI^ 




S£=£mS 
g<s%"s ; = c 

." Bl M ffl ^ K 

S J- J_ S- © ?H 1-1 

2 © O © c o © 

© £ ~ £ « •£ £ 

r* ci c3 ci <d c3 c3 






■Jgllgif 



©^ 3J5 g c © 
j c?o c:2 ^.q o 



APPENDIX. 



499 






fe 
§"■& 






CC <H 






^* 









^fe^<~--g^^<^c3^fe&, ft 



fe -N^g 



fe^'-^'-^feG'-s^ 



«CJ 


c bfc* 


pa 


. c -fe 




.da-d , 


, Rcpt 
, Feb., 
, Marc 


., Jan. 
, Marc 
SO per 
July, 
j., Jan 


«*5 SP p •§ - 


SU5«»tf a 


g^fe" 


<£ 3 ~< 


Jan., 
Jan., 
Dee., 
Jan., 


July, 
Jan., 
One 1 
J 
July, 



o s o o o © o • .e>oo»oo©ooo 

5 "" O T "* Tt< CO • • © iO © CO Tf rr O ^ Tji 



• COCLtOO •©© 

(MNnrl • rl t-H CO t-i CO <M CO (M <S n M S3 M t-> N (N CO 



©©©© ©0©©©C;©©C:©© 
TT <M © © Tl<-<t!MCC(NTP^r|iWt3 

THrirlH tH th t-i © CO t-( T-i 1— I r-i tH r- 1 



>©©©©©»©©©©©©© ©o©o©o© © 

JCntfli-ifflTrTrONriCiMXt-fflCoCCOS t* 
C3rlHiHrinrl«i-(HriHr(Or!r:(MiMHO tH 



■it£sd<N©1^ 



© ■<* t— Ci cm — cm -.- :: - 



^t^^t- c:©©©x-^^^^©© 
cni ■<* cm rt< ico^in- <oo©coiococp 
^cot-itji ©t*» riT -- " 



-i th -* CM 'X © © 



PONOHOIOHOHeOOONOOO 



QO i-l lO r-i rfi r-l 00 OC C OQ DC © "<* CM 



- "J OT 

t>- c3 e3 c3 
P-CCQD0D 



ft ,3 £ W £ g a 

i, fe 32 O r- g ~ ' 
M< o'o'o §"< 



* § 

o & 

M B ■+-» J2 



S3- 

go 

) aT O 

>3 = = c 
o pq os .- o 



• & 



— qd C- ._ 



fe 
O 2 



g =3 

•— -U 03 



Sfe 



c o o c o x • $ 
-j 2 £ Si5 gE-« g «a 



S "so "3 % i 



s - /- » - . 



fe5^> 



500 STATISTICS. ' 

REMARKS ON PRECEDING TABLES. 

Employed in the thirteen groups of industriels, 112,891 women ; 
7,851 girls, of whom 869 were under 12 — rest from 12 to 16. To 
every two men employed, one woman. Women more numerous than 
men in the manufacture of garments and materials for them. None 
employed in the laborious occupations. Equal in fancy wares. Highest 
wages of women per day, 20 francs, least 15 centimes — average, 1 
franc 63 centimes. 

950 women's salaries less than 60 centimes. 
626 " higher than 3 francs. 

The bulk, or 100,050 u range between the two extremes. 

Extremely low salaries are exceptional. Thus only two were so low 
as 15 centimes, and one of these workers was aged sixty-eight, and 
the other seventy -one. Women's wages are rather over half what 
the wages of men are.* 

* 5 centimes are equal to about one cent of our money, and a franc is equal to about 
20 cents. 



THE END. 



m 



mm 

9 

HI 



tut 

■■'•■ Hi r 



' " ;1 9 ' 

"■■■■■"■■■:■. 

■ •••■•... 
■•'•■•■' 88 



• 







